Nine months after the integrity of Student Council elections at the University came into serious question after a series of controversies, students last night approved a new elections body completely separate from Council.
The University Board of Elections reform amendment received the second highest number of overall votes of the 14 referenda in the election, which spanned the last two days. Eighty-nine percent of voters approved of the amendment, which gives authority over election operations to a new board in lieu of the current system, run by an elections committee derived from Council.
Council Vice President for Administration Will Sowers, who has been working on elections reform for the past nine months, said he was glad to see the proposal come to fruition.
"It's a great day for student self-governance," Sowers said.
Students in the College also elected second years Joshua Eubank, Katie Willis and Thomas Gibson, as well as first year Shannon Hogan, to serve as representatives on Council for 2004.
Engineering students chose second year John Yandziak to represent their interests on Council for the upcoming year.
Since fall election turnout is notoriously low, election committee members said they were very pleased that voter turnout hit 20.01 percent -- the highest fall turnout since the inception of the online voting system in the 1997-98 school year.
Fall Elections Committee Chair Bryce Galen said turnout is lower with online voting systems than with paper ballots because Council members aren't "directly persuading" people to vote.
"People had to take their own initiative to vote online," Galen said.
The contentious First Year President/Transfer Liaison Petition generated more participation than any other referendum, netting 3,442 votes. Out of those, 61 percent voted "yes" to giving the First Year Council president and transfer student liaison a vote in Council's representative body.
Council members said, however, that since the petition was written as a bylaw change and not a constitutional change, the student body will face a similar referendum in the spring.
However, two of the 14 referenda failed to generate a number of participating voters sufficient to enact constitutional changes.
Referenda giving the UBE control of the Fourth-Year Trustees and Engineering Council elections failed because of insufficient voter turnout from their individual constituencies.
Sowers said the Fourth-Year Trustees and the Engineering Council do have recourse.
"We hope they will request the Board of Visitors make the requisite changes to their constitutions," Sowers said. "It's clear that the voters intended to embrace the UBE"
Read More
Previewing the September meeting of the Board of Visitors
By Grace Little | 13 hours agoAll meetings will be held on Grounds with the exception of the Health System Board, which will meet at Boar’s Head Resort.
Honor Committee talks providing greater clarity for students navigating the case process
By Nicolas Biernacki and Bertie Azqueta | 14 hours agoThe Committee will reconvene Sunday for their third meeting of the semester.
Va. Senate Democrats ask that Youngkin ceases making appointments to the Board
By Nina Broderick | YesterdayThe Committee’s vote rejected James Donovan, John Harris, H. Eugene Lockhart and Calvert Saunders Moore.
