It wouldn't be entirely accurate to claim that the Student Council (StuCo) is in a state of crisis. Not yet.
Yes, it is true that the ratification of a new constitution effectively turned StuCo upside down and necessitated "special" mid-term elections to replace subsequently displaced officers. It is also true that appeals to the Board of Elections (BoE) against allegations of corruption and dirty campaigning rendered three presidential elections void. And, worst of all, StuCo is still without a president six months after the first round of elections.
The trouble began in December when freshman Jared Ede drafted a new constitution and successfully lobbied it into passage by the student body. This new constitution mandated two significant changes in StuCo.
First, it ousted each class' three representatives -- not to be confused with the class officials (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer).
Four senators per class, chosen in a rushed special election held immediately prior to winter break, replaced the deposed representatives, collectively forming the new Student Assembly subgroup.
These senators each ran for a position on one of several committees, including the Committee on Legislation and the Committee on Leadership Appointments. The senior class was exempt from replacing their representatives, who simply took on the title of senator, though the election filled the fourth senatorial position to round out the 16-member Assembly.
Perhaps of greater importance to the future of the institution was the composition of an entirely new set of bylaws. This completely rewrote the procedures, legislation and overall operational capacity of the group.
For instance, the Student Activities Commission (SAC), which answers to StuCo in its allocation of funds to various student groups, was technically detached from executive oversight until StuCo redrafted and approved the bylaws.
Though Ede sought to democratize what he saw as the parliamentary system under which StuCo functioned, he met much opposition among the members of StuCo, who claimed he had thrown a wrench into to an entire year of StuCo operation. While most members agreed that StuCo became more democratic as a result, the ensuing difficulty signaled impending rough seas.
Controversy arose again in March, when several candidates for president of the student body withdrew from the race. Some expressed frustration with the sudden changes implemented under the new constitution, while others cited excessive mudslinging as sufficient reason to drop out of the campaign.
Things got worse when charges regarding violations of campaign regulations -- and the consequent appeals filed by the accused and other parties -- forced the BoE to throw out the results of the presidential election.
Delays in the release of the results had dragged on for days when, in an interview with the News-Letter, the BoE disclosed that a number of complaints, including an appeal from the JHU American Civil Liberties Union (JHU-ACLU), brought the election's results into question to the extent that the most appropriate action would be to discard them. The BoE placed the second round of presidential elections within the class elections held in April.
Soon thereafter, Director of Student Involvement Jeff Groden-Thomas handed down the surprise removal of Rick Aseltine from his position as BoE co-chair due to a university regulation that requires all students in leadership positions to be full-time students at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences or the Whiting School of Engineering. As a part-time student at the School of Professional Studies in Business and Education, Aseltine was declared ineligible to hold a leadership position and removed from office.
Rumors of corruption within the BoE circulated among students, and some even claimed that both the BoE and the candidates involved in the protracted controversy had partisan ties to the various political groups on campus.
However, these murmurs never materialized in the class elections, when a 397-397 tie between junior Soren Gandrud and sophomore Hyder Syed affirmed dumb luck as the victor. Once again, StuCo found itself without a president and with no clear future.
In an unprecedented turn of events, the BoE pursued the inevitable course of action: a tiebreaker. Gandrud and Syed were the only candidates in a runoff election held in the twilight of the 2003-2004 school year.
But this election was cancelled as well, in favor of another runoff held as the 2004-2005 school year commences, thus leaving StuCo without a president over the vital summer months.
As the next school year begins, and the next session of StuCo commences with the absence of a leader, veteran members of the group have temporarily stepped in to fill the gap left by delay after delay in proceedings.
Until a new president is in place, StuCo will operate under a loose interim leadership from within its own organization.
But even when a president has been elected, this series of postponements can only make things more difficult for a council that is feeling its way through the beginning of a transition signaled by the ratification of the new constitution.
