The student body will vote on Friday to decide whether student government and the Graduate and Professional Student Federation will split and become two separate forms of student governance at UNC.
The student body already voted on this issue in the spring 2016 election. On Oct. 21, Dylan Russell, president of the GPSF, requested an emergency meeting of Student Congress to make changes to the upcoming ballot.
In an email to members of Student Congress, Russell requested a meeting to change two things on Friday's ballot. First, he asked to lower the threshold needed to pass the "Two for Two" referendum from two-thirds of the student body to just over 50 percent of the vote. Second, he said the organization of the ballot should be changed to make it clearer for voters.
Cole Simons, speaker for Student Congress, denied the request.
"With this in mind, due to time constraints as well as logistical restraints placed on us (by) those who manage the voting portal, we will not be having a last minute special session to write, debate, attempt to understand and implement a new voting system three days before an election because of other's procrastination," he said in an email.
In an interview, Russell said this election was an opportunity and defining moment for the graduate and professional student body.
“This University needs to define what student self-governance looks like for graduate and professional students,” he said. “What currently exists is an organization operated by undergraduates where the needs, desires and wants of graduate and professional students are completely missing from the picture.”
The original ballot in the spring election had voters rank their preference in a list of three options. The choices were “Better Together,” which would make reforms but avoid a split; “Two for Two,” a separation between the governing bodies creating two student governments; or simply no change. The election resulted in "Two for Two" getting 50.2 percent of the vote, but since it needed two-thirds of the vote, it was not passed and no change took effect.
GPSF filed a lawsuit against the Board of Elections following this outcome, saying the language of the legislation was hard to understand and thus the outcome was unfair. UNC's Supreme Court decided to hold a re-election this fall.
