Student Senate Votes on Reforming the Election Processes
The 2018-19 Student Senate executive board. (Photo Mary Frasier/The Gettysburgian)
By Gauri Mangala, News Editor
The Monday, March 25 Student Senate meeting saw the reintroduction of a previously tabled amendment regarding the pre-requisites and processes of Student Senate President and Vice President elections.
The amendment states that any candidate that would run for President or Vice President must have previously served as a voting member, which would now include affinity group leaders, or a committee chair. It also stated that a president may only be elected once. The latter clause was later stricken from the amendment both due to its vague nature and because of arguments that junior class presidents should be allowed to hold the position in their senior year, if the student body so chooses.
The amendment goes on to further define the campaign do’s and don’t’s, specifically that candidates cannot threaten voters and may not place flyers on doors without permission. The full amendment was passed without the clause regarding presidential term limits.
The body saw six budget requests. College Democrats was allotted $2,580 for a Pennsylvania College Democrats convention. Student Musical Theatre (SMuT) was allotted $500 for costumes and a cyclorama for the spring musical.
Senator Charlie Williamson ’19 moved to vote on the remaining four budgets at once. Senator Pat McKenna ’20, who served as parliamentarian in the 2017-18 academic year, noted that motioned of that nature tended to take more time than it would to just vote individually, as they rarely pass. Williamson’s motion passed, however, the vote failed, so the body had to move back to voting one at a time. When voting individually on budgets, however, the remaining four budgets all did end up passing:
- Latin American Student Association was allotted $1,671 for LASA Dinner Night
- Gettysburg Environmental Concerns Organization (GECO) was allotted $1,452.22 for a few events held throughout the rest of the Spring semester
- Gettysburg African Student Association (GASA) was allotted $1,145 for an event
- The Class of 2022 was allotted $1,450 for Bubble Soccer
An opinion regarding the proposed banning of plastic bags in dining facilities, meaning Commons, the Bullet Hole, and Dive, was presented by Nadine Snyder ’21, Chair of Sustainability Committee. The opinion was adopted by the Student Senate. For a full recap on the opinion, watch The Gettysburgian‘s Facebook Livestream:
During the Student Concerns section of Student Senate, a few senators voiced concerns over Williamson’s motion regarding voting on budgets collectively, as they considered it disrespectful to the process. Williamson later told The Gettysburgian, “It just makes sense because it’s more efficient assuming BMC (Budget Management Committee) recommended the full amount on all of them. We all vote yes on everything anyway and if you are interested in the event, then read the email about it.”
Rock Swartz ’22, Chair of the College Life Advisory Committee (CLAC) announced that he is holding an unofficial investigation into the reported micro-aggressions within the BMC.
Student Senate will reconvene on Monday, April 1.
