By Hannah Gordon
Managing Editor
A new university charity was chosen with seven proxy voters for senators, one senator voting twice and 188 student body votes in an online survey to guide Student Government Association (SGA) on student opinion.
On Nov. 24, SGA voted for Embrace it Africa to replace March of Dimes as the new university charity.
Each year, Bonaventure hosts a campus-wide fundrasing event, with proceeds being donated to the selected charity.
Before the vote, SGA released a survey to the student-body, which 188 students, or about 11 percent of the undergraduate students, participated in. The survey offered six options for a new charity and the top three (SBU Bald for Bucks, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and Embrace it Africa) were voted on by SGA. The final tally showed 91 student body votes for SBU Bald for Bucks, 45 votes for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and 29 Embrace it Africa, leaving the bottom three charities with less than 13 percent of the votes among them.
SGA voters included 10 senators-at-large, five big five senators (The Bona Venture, Intramurals, The Buzz, Campus Activities Board and the Medical Emergency Response Team) and eight class senators, for a total of 23. The final tally was 12 votes for Embrace it Africa, six votes for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and five votes for SBU Bald for Bucks. Seven, or 30 percent, of the 23 voters were proxy stand-in voters and one senator, Madeleine Faircloth, voted twice.
Faircloth represented Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the Class of 2017 as its secretary. This is a violation of Article XI, Section 4 of the SGA Constitution which states that one person cannot hold two voting positions in the Senate. It also violates Article XV, Section 2, which states “each member of the voting membership of the SGA shall have one (1) vote.”
Rose Brown, SGA president, said due to CAB’s constitution, Faircloth was the only eligible representative.
“We are well aware of this clause and are working to resolve the situation with Maddie serving as two voting members of SGA,” said Rose Brown. “We had an oversight in the voting process, and as a result, Maddie was able to vote twice. This was a unique situation, and we we are working to address this.”
Rose Brown said SGA will undergo a constitutional revision in January, an event that happens every three years according to her, which will address this issue among others.
One of the seven proxy voters didn’t vote as the senator instructed her to. Taquan Brown, the Intramurals senator, was represented by junior accounting major Melissa Stachowiak. Taquan Brown instructed Stachowiak to vote for SBU Bald for Bucks, but she voted for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
Taquan Brown said he wasn’t upset with his proxy’s choice, even though he was hoping Bald for Bucks would win. Stachowiak said she was confused about the voting process.
“As my understanding from sitting in the meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 24, it brought up that Bald for Bucks was going to continue either way,” she said. “Therefore, I thought it was a good idea to switch up the charity and pick another one that would go local.”
Stachowiak also said SGA should be more “proactive” in considering the absence of Senate members, referencing the vote being held the day before Thanksgiving break.
“Many students are from out of town and wanted to leave as early as possible,” she said.
Anneliese Quinlan, senator-at-large, who could not be present due to a family commitment, instructed her proxy to vote for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, which he did. Quinlan presented the charity for consideration, but said she nearly instructed her proxy to vote for Embrace it Africa after the presentation, which happened at a previous meeting.
On Nov. 30, Nate Discavage, junior journalism and mass communication major, wrote a column on The Intrepid, St. Bonaventure’s online media outlet, expressing his dissent for the vote turnout. He said SGA wasn’t representing student opinion because “over 50 percent of SGA voted for a charity that less than 20 percent of the student body was interested in; less than 25 percent of voters selected the charity that 48 percent of the students wanted.”
Quinlan challenged Discavage, saying she wasn’t sure the survey was an accurate depiction of student opinion.
“You have to look at how the survey was distributed,” Quinlan said. “The deadline was postponed several times to try and get more students to nominate charities. You also have to consider that involvement in the Student Government Association is low overall for a school our size. The meetings are open to all students, and it would’ve been helpful for voting purposes to see students show up and voice their opinions. Unfortunately, in my opinion, unless you have a friend in SGA who asked you to vote, the student body overall didn’t seem interested in the charity vote.”
Rose Brown also said most of the student body was absent for the charity presentations given to SGA.
“The Senate clearly saw a great presentation from Embrace it Africa, which was reflected in the vote,” she said.
gordonhr13@bonaventure.edu
