An attempt by several members of the Student Council to disband the Board of Elections and institute several other reforms has been delayed until May 9, when the changes will come to a vote as referenda in what may be the last election ever run by the BoE.
If passed, the referenda would amend the StuCo constitution and implement several procedural reforms. These include changing the way vacancies in StuCo are filled, and allowing the council to amend its constitution without approval from the student body.
StuCo members expected the referenda to be placed on the ballot for last Thursday's class elections after they scrambled to collect signatures from 15 percent of the student body before the ballots were printed. Some officers were angered to find that the BoE had decided to push back the vote on the referenda to a later date, based on a protest filed by sophomore Senator on the Committee for Authorization Jared Ede.
BoE Co-Chair Michael Seibert cited the need for voter education about the referenda as the rationale for the delay.
StuCo's Executive President-elect Sophomore Atin Agarwal, who sponsored the amendment to disband the BoE, responded to the protest by filing an appeal to have the referenda put on Thursday's ballot.
An appeals committee met Thursday morning and ruled in favor of Agarwal's challenge to the protest. But the appeals committee decided to push the vote back to May 9 to allow for voter education and because the updated ballot was not ready until 3 p.m., halfway through the election.
Agarwal said that the vote should not have been pushed back in the first place because he gathered enough signatures and followed the procedure required by the BoE bylaws.
"They didn't violate their bylaws," he said, "but the bylaws state that a protest must be in regard to procedure, and the appeals committee ruled that there was nothing wrong with our procedure, so the protest was baseless. Our petition was valid."
He added, "But, because this decision was made around 3 p.m., they decided to delay the election."
Seibert commented that, according to the BoE bylaws, the co-chairs operated within their authority.
"The bylaws are open for interpretation by the Board and we followed them," Seibert said. "It's in the bylaws that all interpretations lie with the chairs, and we feel we handled it appropriately."
According to the BoE bylaws, if signatures from 15 percent of the student body are acquired, referenda will occur at the next possible election. The decision to delay a vote on the referenda is left to the discretion of the BoE, if it deems that holding such a vote is not possible.
In total, six amendments were proposed, all put forth by StuCo members. Five were packaged onto one petition, while the amendment to abolish the BoE stood on its own.
For the May 9 vote, the six referenda will likely be packaged together as one.
If passed, the amendment to abolish the BoE would set up a new Committee on Student Elections (CSE) to run all future elections.
The executive president of StuCo and the director of student involvement would provide managerial oversight of all CSE decisions.
Agarwal commented that a history of problems led to his decision to author the amendment.
"In the past two years there have been problems with basically every election, and that's not acceptable," Agarwal said. "We've had several meetings with [the BoE], and basically there's been no change. This is a consistent problem, and the solution, as we see it, is to abolish the BoE."
Director of Student Involvement Jeff Groden-Thomas could not be reached for comment.
The other five amendments include several significant changes to the StuCo constitution. If passed, StuCo would be empowered to change its constitution without having to present amendments for approval by the student body.
Another amendment would change the group's policy for filling vacancies. Currently, class presidents have the power to fill open positions in their delegations on their own. This new amendment would allow the entire class delegation to vote and fill vacancies.
The remaining three amendments would change the group's impeachment policy, would allow it to overturn legislation and decisions and would establish StuCo's bylaws and constitution as the foundation for all student groups within the authority of the Council -- those groups receiving funding from the Student Activities Commission.
A forum will be held Monday, May 2, to discuss the content of the referenda and the changes that would result if they passed. The time and location have not yet been determined.
