At a relatively brief meeting Wednesday evening, the Associated Student Government Senate approved an amendment to its election guidelines dealing with the “no confidence” choice on ballots.
Senate also heard a farewell address from President Patrick Keenan-Devlin and the announcement of two new bills. It approved the ballot for the upcoming elections on Tuesday, as well.
The change to ASG’s election guidelines arrives as the candidates for president and executive vice president run unopposed this year. On the ballot, students can vote for the candidate, abstain, select a write-in candidate or choose “no confidence.”
If “no confidence” manages to prevail in an election, the old guidelines said Senate would choose someone to fill the position. Noting that the old guidelines were not democratic, the amendment changed them, requiring that ASG could hold another campus-wide election to decide the issue.
Jay Schumacher, the only student running for president, said the change was for the better. The fact that he is the only presidential candidate this year wasn’t a factor in the amendment’s creation, he said, because the no-confidence issue has been perennial for ASG.
“I think this ruling brings us in line with the constitution,” the Communication junior said. “I think it’s a little ironic that if ‘no confidence’ wins, the whole process repeats itself, theoretically forever, until someone wins.”
Senators also heard a farewell speech from ASG’s outgoing president.
Keenan-Devlin, with a tongue-in-cheek “Mission Accomplished” sign behind him, spoke of the improvements ASG made to students’ lives and to its own character during his term.
“We weren’t too transparent (before last year),” the Music senior said. “We were very bureaucratic. We were way too full of ourselves.”
He praised several ASG members individually for their work, including SESP sophomore Ivy LeTourneau, the recently departed treasurer. LeTourneau came into her job dealing with ASG’s questionable financial reputation and four years of destroyed records.
“Now we can say we know where the money is, where it’s coming from,” Keenan-Devlin said.
Other successes he noted were continued improvements to the ASG server, the creation of summer internship grants for students and the placement of condoms in dorm vending machines.
Senate also heard two new bills at the meeting. One would fund “safety cards” to be sent to campus residents, providing them with emergency information. The other would fund mailings to incoming freshmen about ASG, with the intention to get them involved.
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