By Jessics Dillon
Contributing Writer
Two amendments to the Student Government Association (SGA) constitution seek to rectify the issues that arose in last spring’s election for executive board president and vice president.
Some feel that the amendments were proposed in an unethical manner.
The amendments, proposed by Jessica Laursen, class of 2017 senator, move to change wording which deals with the election of executive and class officers.
According to Laursen, the change would ensure the candidate who received the most votes—the plurality—would secure the victory. As the constitution stands, a person is elected only if they receive the vote majority, which is 50 percent plus one vote.
Last spring, due to the language existing in the constitution, a technicality created disagreement among the candidates.
J.W. Cook and running mate Laursen were deemed victorious, receiving 41 percent of the vote. A careful reading of the constitution invalidated these results. Cook and Laursen had not received the vote majority.
With no language existing in the constitution to remedy what had occurred, Rick Trietley, vice president for student affairs and SGA adviser, mandated that a runoff election be held.
In the second election, Anneliese Quinlan and Gabby Slavny emerged victorious.
The proposed amendments would prevent runoff elections in the future.
“If there was a three-party race… whoever gets the most votes wins,” Laursen said.
Anneliese Quinlan, executive board president for the SGA, spoke about the proposal to the BV.
“Obviously I’m biased in it, since the plurality helped me last semester,” Quinlan said. “The first election was invalid, and the election committee made a mistake in declaring a winner so early without first reading the constitution. Hopefully, these changes will help prevent anything like that from happening in the future.”
Concerns have been raised regarding the way in which the amendments have been proposed.
“The SGA constitution mandates that amendments be read in an initial meeting before they can be voted on. [Laursen] decided that our first reading would be at the meeting on Tuesday,” Quinlan said. “The purpose of that meeting was to interview nominees. It was an unofficial meeting.”
Some members felt that the proposal was rushed.
“On Thursday, we started to vote at 12:42 p.m., with only 18 minutes left in the meeting. Half of the senators present hadn’t even heard the amendments before,” Quinlan said.
The student body will have the opportunity to vote on the proposed amendments Oct. 1 to Oct. 4. Voting will be available on my.sbu.edu.
The proposed amendments are listed below.
Article X. Class Officer Responsibilities
Section 1. Election of Class Officers. The President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer of each class shall be chosen in the spring election by a majority plurality vote of their respective class and shall serve for one year, beginning April 1 of the academic year and terminating March 31 of the following academic year. The officers shall be elected according to the procedures outlined in Article XVII.
Article VIII. The Executive Branch
Section 2. Election of Executive Officers. The President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer shall be chosen in the spring election by a majority plurality vote of the student body voting in the election and shall serve for one year, beginning April 1 of the academic year and terminating March 31 of the following academic year. The officers shall be elected according to the procedures outlined in Article XVI.
dillonj15@bonaventure.edu
