StuCo meetings discuss BoE, SAC
By Alexa Kurzius and Brooke Nevils · The Johns Hopkins News-Letter · October 23, 2003
Student Council Officers, including the newly elected freshman, debated the policies presented in the Board of Election's bylaws at their meeting Tuesday, Oct. 21.
By creating a set of bylaws, the Board of Elections seeks to have a standardization of election procedures, and ability to modify these bylaws without having to appeal to StuCo.
The Board of Elections (BOE) , is a panel which deals with the running of elections.
By the creation of their new bylaws, the BOE hopes to eliminate the need for the cumbersome appeals process that involves the approval of StuCo.
One main change in the bylaws is in the voting system, from a single transfer voting system to a 1 for 1 voting system.
BOE representatives argued that the new system would increase motivation in the candidates for their campaign.
This system was first tested in the recent freshman election; BOE has yet to release the official statistics and percentages of the standing of the freshman election.
Debate rose regarding the release of such statistics - the Board of Elections declared they had the liberty to decide as to whether these statistics should be released.
This argument sparked the question as to whether the BOE could exert such control over elections; BOE currently has to appeal changes in their constitution to StuCo.
While the Board of Elections rebutted many of StuCo's arguments on the basis that they were not specific, the overall view of StuCo was that the Bylaws needed substantial revision.
Thus, BOE was assigned to revise their bylaws, and StuCo will thus take care of this issue at another juncture.
Members of StuCo expressed their concern over the discrepancies found in the bylaws and constitution of the Board of Elections.
When asked the hopes of whether the constitution would pass, junior Soren Gandrud commented that "well, dreams are free."
Senior Lindsay Allen commented that the constitution needed "a little more of a balance of power between BOE and StuCo."
Alpha Phi proposed a monetary donation on the behalf of StuCo for their King of Hearts Philanthropy event. King of Hearts will be held on Friday, Nov. 14, and will feature a male beauty pageant.
This donation passed through the members of StuCo with relative ease.
There were also several issues dealt with last week. One issue addressed at the Student Council meeting on Oct. 14 were how to remedy the long lines at Levering around lunch time.
In its last meeting before the arrival of the newly elected representatives of the freshman class, Student Council gave its approval to three new clubs seeking memberships in the SAC and streamlined a few of its own by-laws for the upcoming year.
The Caribbean Cultural Society, the Filipino Students Association and the Club Field Hockey team each submitted constitutions for review and were welcomed into the SAC by the Council.
The majority of Tuesday's meeting was spent updating the Student Council by-laws.
"We were just taking out a bunch of stuff that the council doesn't see as a valuable part of our charges on campus," Charles Reyner, Student Council President, said.
Many of the revisions dealt with the Committee on Leadership Appointments (COLA).
"We removed several things from COLA's duties. Many of the awards and positions that were in the by-laws for COLA to appoint have been being filled by other entities on campus for the past two years," Reyner said.
-Staff writer Emily Metzger
contributed to this report.