Associated Student Government will consider new guidelines at Wednesday’s Senate meeting that could prohibit paper campaigning in ASG elections.
The rules committee will propose a set of election guidelines for senators that would mandate campaigns without fliers, posters or other paper advertisements.
Senators also will vote on a bill to shorten Freshman Freeze, which prohibits freshmen from entering fraternity houses during their first month on campus.
The bill’s authors say Freshman Freeze currently leads to off-campus parties that can be more dangerous than those on campus. The bill would shorten Freeze to include only New Student Week in an attempt to provide safer social activities and to reduce the antagonistic relations between students and Evanston residents.
“It will bring more campus life back onto the campus,” said Bryan Tolles, a fraternity senator and the bill’s co-author. “It’s not just a push for fraternity recruitment. It’s a way to bring campus life back to Northwestern.”
The new election regulations are aimed at avoiding the infractions that occurred during last year’s ASG campaign, Rules Chairwoman Noreen Khalid said.
Last year, ASG’s election commission fined many candidates for violations ranging from overspending to publicizing after the cut-off date. Academic Vice President Tamara Kagel even faced censure from the Senate before being absolved by ASG’s Judicial Board.
“Elections were dictated more last year by things they shouldn’t have been,” said Khalid, a Communication senior. “Most of the infractions … were centered around the rules about paper campaigning or campaigning past the date when you were supposed to take down your fliers.”
Candidates now are required to remove their fliers two days before the election. Khalid said the new rule would prevent ASG from fining candidates who forgot where they posted fliers and thus failed to remove them.
“Why are we making people take down these fliers when they may not even know where all of them are?” Khalid said. “We don’t want to … enforce these nitpicky rules.”
In addition, candidates were required last year to have their fliers recorded and stamped, which led to students forging the stamps, Khalid said.
Without fliers and posters, students will be forced to engage in more face-to-face interaction, said Jason Warren, ASG’s former Rules Chairman. He drafted the new set of guidelines for ASG sanctioning paperless campaigns.
“It will force candidates to be more personable,” said Warren, a Communication junior. “It puts more pressure on candidates to think of innovative ways to campaign. I think it will make elections cleaner and more interesting.”
Senators said they appreciated the proposed guidelines’ attempt to regulate campaign infractions, but some expressed concerns that the new regulations would not solve the problem.
“I think it will help reduce the infractions,” Tolles said. “But I think we should just stay with the status quo and enforce the rules already in place.”
