By: JIM IRIZARRY
Managing Editor
jcirizar@iusb.edu
After postponing an earlier vote, the Student Government Association has finally and unanimously passed revisions to its election bylaws.
The vote was initially postponed by the SGA during the Jan. 27 Senate meeting.
The revisions to the election bylaws comes in time for the upcoming election. The changes come after an election which saw four students disqualified for posting unapproved fliers both around campus and under doors in student housing, going door-to-door in student housing and posting unapproved messages on campus sidewalks.
Among the changes that were made was the removal of subsection four of Section C of the bylaws, which allowed students to run on a ticket with other candidates. That rule also stated that all members of a ticket were responsible for the actions of everyone on said ticket when promoting the group. If one candidate on the ticket violated election policy, all candidates on the ticket could be removed from the election.
SGA Senator Shail Bhagat was most vocal in favor of the removal of the ticket rule.
“Micro-managing to the process where no one screws up at any point is not heard of in human existence,” Bhagat said. “This could screw up an entire campaign, and if we have dedicated student leaders on this campaign who want to serve in student government, but because of one small thing, it could be held against them and all of them could be penalized for that.”
SGA Secretary Stuart Settle said that with or without the language in the election bylaws, things would still be open to review by the judicial council.
“I think if there is a transgression, with or without this language, it’s still going to be deemed to what extent is the party responsible,” Settle said. “I don’t know how much we require that language.”
The SGA also revised some of the language of subsection two of Section C of the bylaws, which pertains to approval of all campaign promotional materials by the election committee and the Office of Student Life. The change made clear that any promotion on a public campaign social media page must be approved by the election committee and the Office of Student Life. Previously, that subsection included any social media post, whether on a public campaign page or the student’s personal profile.
