Prospective SG candidates attend meeting, face new rules
Five possible tickets had representatives at last night’s informational meeting about the upcoming Student Government elections. The meeting was the first of two.
Current student body Vice President Andrew Aubery was at the meeting with his vice presidential candidate, senator Jessica Asuncion.
“I am running for president,” Aubery said.
Senator Brandon Faza, who lost to the current president Bijal Chhadva last year in a run-off, had representatives there to confirm his candidacy.
Senior justice on the SG Supreme Court Silverlee Hernandez confirmed that she would also be running for president.
“It is going to be interesting because for the past two years I have actually sat on the cases … as they unfolded,” Hernandez said, referring to the fact that the past two election results have been taken to court.
Junior Matthew Couret will be running as her vice president. He is the vice president of programming for the Interfraternity Council.
Glen Gilzean Jr. was there to confirm his candidacy for student body president. He said his running mate would be Xavier Johnson.
Michael Johnson, the secretary for the IFC, confirmed he would be running for president. Kyle Myers, his running mate, was also at the meeting.
There were about a dozen senators at the meeting who plan to run in March. Student body President Bijal Chhadva was one of them. He hopes to represent the College of Engineering over the summer.
“So I can focus all my energies on my engineering students for one semester,” Chhadva said.
The main purpose of the meeting was to outline the rules of the upcoming election and try to make it known early that the Election Rules Committee wants this year’s election to run smoothly, unlike past years’ elections.
“We’re just cutting down on all the ‘he said, she said’,” said Marigelle Malapira, supervisor of elections. “We’re going to document everything so that we will have records of everything.”
Rules dealing with campaign funds and campaign staffs were among the hot topics discussed.
This year everything spent during the election has to be documented, and everything donated has to be documented and counted at “market value.” The combined value of everything in the campaign has to stay under $1,754.05.
“It’s a complicated issue because I know a lot more students now are going out and getting sponsorships,” said Jen Brack, SG adviser. “Even though they are getting things for free they still have to report that to us … so that again it’s as equal for everyone as possible.”
Another sore spot for some potential candidates was a new cap on the number of people on a campaign staff, now at 20. It was also made clear that campaign staffers would be held to the same standards as the candidates.
“You are ultimately responsible for what these people do,” said Stacy Schnizer, SG attorney general. “Make sure you pick people you trust.”