The greater part of the Student Senate’s meeting this past Tuesday focused on reviewing the GM Week Elections Handbook to return to the Rules and Elections Committee for revisions.
Several changes were made between this and last year’s handbook which were meant to reflect problems that arose last year, according to RNE Chair Christopher Gearns ’08. The handbook is, for example, more closely monitoring the financing aspect, requesting that a financial report be submitted both the week before and after GM Week.
The largest debate, however, ensued when discussing how many nomination signatures are needed to run for the office of Grand Marshal or President of the Union. Last year, the number was raised at the request of former GM Max Yates ’06 to 750 signatures because he felt the previous number of 500 was too easily reached. According to Gearns, the committee investigated Yates’ idea and agreed to raise the number to 750 for that year.
This year, however, there is a much more in-depth argument about how many signatures a candidate should have to obtain. Most members of the Senate agreed that 500 nominations is a relatively easy number to reach and that the extra 250 was a real strain on last year’s candidates.
Because of the variable number of invalid signatures a candidate could receive while campaigning, a student would have to theoretically aim to obtain around 850 signatures to make sure they had enough.
Some members of the Senate feel that this is an ineffective way of campaigning because it does not allow enough time to talk to the people from whom candidates are getting signatures; they feel that it would be more effective to have a longer period of time to spend talking to the candidates.
Other members, however, feel that working to obtain the greater number of signatures is only a precursor to the job itself. Dan Horvath ’08, co-chair of the Finance, Facilities and Advancement Committee, stated, “It is a first glance at how difficult being the GM is. They have to be committed to working hard and sacrificing class time. When you consider the number of students on campus, 750 signatures isn’t as bad as it initially seems.”
As quorum wasn’t met at the meeting and the Senate could not officially vote on the handbook, it suggested to RNE that the number of signatures required be set at a medium somewhere in the 600s range—in between the “easy” 500 and the more difficult 750 signatures.
Of the four GM candidates from last year’s race, three of them were opposed to keeping the number of signatures required of candidates at the 750 level.
Grand Marshal Carlos Perea ’07 was very happy with the way the discussion went at the meeting. “I’m glad that we suggested lowering it; 750 signatures is unreasonable. Most people just sign your form and don’t really take away anything. It’s just meaningless and difficult.”
As one of last year’s six candidates, James Fisher ’07, president of the Union, said of the proposed changes, “I assure the Senate that the decision will have a tremendous impact of the lives of next year’s leaders.”
