The Associated Student Government passed emergency legislation Wednesday in response to a candidate saying they would resign the presidency if they won the election, which begins Thursday.
The addition to the election commission guidelines states that if the winner of an ASG presidential election declines the position, a new winner shall be declared by removing the candidate from the ballot and recounting through ranked-choice voting. The election commissioner would review the recount.
Parliamentarian and Chief Justice, School of Communications senior, Ryan Lien, who wrote the addition, said it comes after presidential candidate and Weinberg sophomore Alan Hu said he’d resign if elected by the student body during the ASG presidential debate Tuesday night.
“This creates a potential for a constitutional crisis or presidential crisis,” Lien said.
Lien said that in the case that one of the two candidates declines the presidency, both of them would then be dropped from the ballot.
Senator and Weinberg first-year Xander Hampton raised concerns about the amendment. The refusal of one candidate from the winning campaign would immediately eliminate their running mate from the presidency, as all candidates run as co-presidents in the election.
“The other person has their presidency declined, I think that is unfair,” Hampton said.
Two other pieces of legislation were also presented and will be up for a vote next week.
Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance ASG Senator Lula Blas Fox introduced a resolution to offer classes that can fulfill language requirements for most schools at NU.
“Northwestern should support Indigenous students that are learning their own languages while at Northwestern,” Fox said.
Most other Big 10 universities offer Indigenous language courses or a way for students to get language credit with their own language, Fox said.
Additionally, Lien proposed expanding free ticket access for athletic events for graduate students.
Speaker of the Senate Kaitlyn Salgado-Alvarez provided updates regarding the NU presidential search committee. ASG previously expressed concern about the makeup of the committee because it does not include any undergraduate representatives.
ASG Senate Leadership convened with members of the search committee before Wednesday’s meeting for a listening session, where they presented student concerns and hopes for the 18th University president.
“We hope to be representative of the student body in terms of what student sentiment has been so far and what we want to see from the next administration,” Salgado-Alvarez said.
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