One big mess: Leaders need to work together to ?ll Congress vacancies

Eleven seats in Student Congress are currently empty, and the process of planning a special election to fill them has been grueling.

A lack of communication between Congress, Student Body President Jasmin Jones and the Board of Elections has only exacerbated the problem, and no one is accepting blame for why these vacancies have not yet been filled.

As a result, the student body, particularly graduate students, isn’t getting the representation it deserves.

Some of these seats have been vacant since Congress’ inauguration April 7, and although a special election date is supposed to be set no more than thirty days after a seat becomes vacant, it was not until after Congress representative Emily Danforth filed a lawsuit against Jones and Board of Elections Chairman Pete Gillooly on Oct. 8 that Jones was prompted to set the Nov. 5 date.

Jones said that until the suit was filed, she was unaware of the vacancies in Congress.

Gillooly stated that he had been planning an election in concurrence with Homecoming on Nov. 5, but was unsure whether he had the authority to set the date without a full board.

Title IV of the Student Code states that the task of setting a special election date belongs to the student body president

But the Code also states that it is up to the ethics chairman of Student Congress to inform the Board of Elections of any vacancies, and then the Board of Elections is supposed to move forward with planning a special election.

Gillooly stated that he was not contacted by the ethics chairman until two weeks ago, although Congress Speaker Joe Levin-Manning personally e-mailed him about the need for an election in September.

The chain of events leading to Jones finally taking action highlight major inconsistencies in the Student Code and an inability of Congress and the Board of Elections to cooperate with each other.

Jones should have been informed of the need to plan a special election in a more timely fashion so that Danforth did not have to resort to filing a lawsuit.

The Board of Elections and Student Congress need to learn how to work together.

The Board of Elections held a candidate interest meeting last week which was only attended by four students, which Levin-Manning attributed to last minute planning and poor publicity from the Board of Elections. A second meeting, which seven students attended, was held last night.

If Congress and the Board of Elections would work together to recruit students to run for Congress and be more proactive in filling every vacancy, then lawsuits will not be necessary to move things forward.

It’s unfortunate that our student leaders cannot work together more effectively.