Eleven Empty Congress Seats met with low Interest

Only four students went to a mandatory meeting for individuals who plan to seek empty Student Congress seats in a Nov. 5 special election.

Eleven of the 41 seats in Congress are currently empty, and the Board of Elections called a special election to fill them.

While graduate students have complained about a consistent lack of representation in Congress, all four of the prospective candidates at Thursday’s meeting were undergraduates, unable to fill the majority of the open seats.

A member of Student Congress filed a lawsuit on Oct. 8, claiming that graduate students, for whom six of the 11 empty seats are designated, were underrepresented and not being given the opportunity to run.

Graduate student representative Emily Danforth filed the lawsuit against Student Body President Jasmin Jones and Board of Elections Chairman Pete Gillooly, accusing them of failing to arrange for a special election to fill the empty seats.

The Student Code requires an election to be called within 30 days of the seats becoming vacant. Jones responded to the legal action by calling the Nov. 5 election.

Graduate and Professional Student Federation President Keith Lee, a former member of Student Congress, said he thinks graduate students lack the time to devote to student government.

“There’s much more time to dedicate to student activity as an undergrad,” he said.

Danforth said she thinks Thursday’s meeting was poorly advertised and held at an inconvenient time and location for graduate students, many of whom live off-campus.

“It was too last-minute for people to come,” she said.

Danforth said she will encourage graduate student candidates to run write-in campaigns, which she said are more convenient and practical for individuals seeking less-contested positions.

A second candidate interest meeting will be held Monday at 6 p.m. in the Student Union, Room 2500.

Congress Speaker Joe Levin-Manning said he thinks it is important to fill all of the open positions.

“A quarter of the seats are empty. That’s a quarter of the student body that’s not represented,” he said.

But Levin-Manning said he did not think Congress has suffered because of the vacancies.

Lee said he thinks graduate students are currently underrepresented, but members are committed to changing that.

“I think people in Congress have made it clear that this is something that is important because they need accurate representation in order to function.”



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