BoE changes approved temporarily
By Xiao-Bo Yuan · The Johns Hopkins News-Letter · September 18, 2003
In an unorthodox and unexpected decision, the Johns Hopkins Student Council (StuCo) voted Tuesday night to temporarily approve the new Board of Elections (BoE) constitution so that they could proceed with the Freshmen class elections scheduled for Oct. 5 and 6, with the caveat that they will revisit the constitution following the elections and will then determine its permanent status.
"I've never personally seen [this type of decision] before," said StuCo President Charles Reyner.
"The council felt it was important for BoE to have a new constitution, but we had reservations about how much thought had gone into it, and we wanted time to take proper care," Reyner added.
The new constitution was drafted in response to various problems with last year's StuCo elections, which were the first to be conducted via the Internet rather than on paper ballots.
According to BoE cochairs Matthew Bouloubasis and Rick Aseltine, who presented their new constitution before StuCo, the old constitution no longer "fit the culture of the university" because it failed to indicate procedures for electronic voting and timelines for the opening and closing of polls.
"We cut out the fat in the constitution," Aseltine said during the latter part of the meeting, referring to the BoE's decision to turn the old eight-page constitution into a one-page statement defining the organization of the Board.
Details of election procedure that were included can now be found in the BoE bylaws, which StuCo has no power to change.
After discussing the constitution, Reyner amended two articles. One amendment removed the constitution's interference in the actions of the independent Committee on Leadership Appointments (COLA), while the other corrected an impeachment procedure that clashed with StuCo's bylaws.
However, ratification of the amended constitution was delayed when conflicts between Council opinion and the BoE constitution emerged.
A debate over how much autonomy BoE should have began in full force once the two cochairs had left the room to await StuCo's decision.
Several StuCo members claimed that the constitution seemed rushed, since the document had been submitted less than a day before the meeting. Other members -- particularly newly named Junior Class President Brian Drolet -- worried that articles in the constitution gave BoE too much power.
Junior Representative Stephen Popowski also said that the problems in last year's elections were partly due to a lack of specifics in BoE procedure, which "left the decisions to their own intuition." The new constitution, Popowski said, again failed to provide a level of preciseness.
On the other side, some StuCo members argued that the BoE's allotment of powers existed so that the Board could function independently within the short time frame of elections.
During their presentation before the Council, cochairs Bouloubasis and Aseltine expressed concerns that too much bureaucratic red tape would prevent the Board from being efficient.
"Not passing the constitution will detrimentally affect the Freshmen election process," Homewood Student Affairs (HSA) Chair Patience Boudreaux said. "I don't know that StuCo should have any say in BoE." Several other members joined Boudreaux in that assertion.
The debate finally led to a straw poll, or informal count of opinions, which determined that a "contingency plan" would best solve the stalemate. The motion then passed to give the BoE constitution a temporary approval until a week after election announcements.
"I was proud of the council," Reyner said of the discussion. "Everyone brought up points that were legitimate."
In other business conducted at Tuesday's meeting, several previously unfilled positions in StuCo were approved, one of which was junior class President Brian Drolet, who rose from elected Vice Presidency to replace resigned President Iverson Long. Drolet's former position will now filled by Soren Gandrud.
The newly appointed Drolet mentioned the possibility of using junior class funds to sponsor a Club Night.
Sophomore Aaron Levy-Forsythe was appointed as parliamentarian, with the responsibilities of aiding the president in running meetings and keeping track of bylaws and procedures.
Senior Lindsay Allan, junior Russell Hayden, and sophomore Rob Huang were also appointed to positions in COLA, the committee responsible for nominating leaders within StuCo.