Students weigh in
With the future of the next student body presidency still up in the air, there remain few answers. Those closely involved with the election process have been making their opinions heard, but what about the average student?
Of the students asked about the situation, very few – approximately one in five – were even familiar with what is going on.
The Election Rules Commission has named Frank Harrison and Faran Abbasi the student body president-elect and vice president-elect, respectively.
The Student Government Supreme Court has said those results are “null and void,” and a new election needs to be held because the ERC broke several of its own rules while governing the recent election.
One of those positions will eventually be determined valid, but which will be upheld is unclear.
Student Affairs, which SG falls under, has taken notice and said it will most likely have a hand in deciding between the two positions.
According to Dean of Students Tom Miller, there were no solid answers as of Thursday.
Another question at hand, though, is what students viewing the quandary from afar think of all this.
Some, such as junior Maria Khambaty, said the students have spoken and the election should stand. She added that she doesn’t think students take into consideration all the minute rules that were apparently broken.
“I don’t think those numbers lie,” Khambaty said. “The students think Frank Harrison is the best.”
Harrison defeated Ben Sens in a runoff election by a vote of 1,727 to 1,528.
She added that she had voted in both the previous student body general election as well as the runoff, but would not vote in a third election.
“As a student, I wouldn’t want to vote again,” Khambaty said.
Many students said SG has appeared disorganized throughout the dilemma.
“It seems very disorganized,” junior Laura Welch said. “It makes it look like there were some other motives going on behind the scenes.”
Senior Shayla Simmons said she thought the disorganization was dissapointing and could have negative results.
“This hurts the students that do care about how things are run on campus,” Simmons said. “It gives students a reason to be nonchalant.”
There was no shortage of students without any interest in the election or SG.
Sophomore Andrew Selego questioned the motives of student body president candidates in general.
“Do they care about the school or resumes?” Selego said.
Several students, who freely admitted they did not vote in the recent election, questioned whether it mattered who won the election. They said that regardless of who won, they felt the victor would not have much power to do anything, so voting was not important to them.
Some students do care about who will be their next president, though, and they continue to wait for a resolution.
Miller said he has received and will be reading several e-mails from students close to the election, including candidates. He also said he has received advice on the matter from General Counsel.
General Counsel has said in the past that the Court should not have even heard the case that led to its nullification of the election results. Its official position has not been made public as it is classified as legal advice, which is confidential.
In the Court’s official opinion document explaining why it felt the election results should be nullified, a plan for how a new election should be run was specifically outlined.
Miller clarified that if the Court’s decision stands, a new election would be held but probably not exactly how the Court described.