Frustrations about Board of Trustees elections arose among Student Association members during a four-hour meeting Monday. Members had to vote at least six times to achieve a majority vote of four-fifths for the candidates.

SA has the opportunity to elect two student liaisons onto the Board of Trustees every year. The Board of Trustees is the overall governing body of Syracuse University. With the upcoming SA budget meetings, the elections for the Board of Trustees had to be finished at this week’s meeting. Elections for University Senate and various SA positions were also held, and guidelines for the upcoming budget meetings were discussed.

In order for candidates to be elected to the Board of Trustees, there must be a four-fifths majority vote, or at least 15 of the 18 assembly members. The candidates for the 2010-11 Board of Trustees liaisons included Jon Barnhart, SA president; Neal Casey, Student Life Committee chair; Bonnie Kong, a representative for the College of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Academic Affairs Committee; and Yang Yang, a freshman in Arts and Sciences.

During elections, the candidates have the opportunity to discuss why they believe they should hold a given position. The assembly then asks each candidate questions and, if need be, makes a motion to extend questioning. Candidates are sent out of the room for the assembly to discuss pros and cons of each candidate and vote by secret ballot.

After a failed attempt to reach a majority vote, assembly members discussed other methods to vote, including by hand. They also considered an exemption of pro-con debates before each vote. These arguments occurred each time a vote failed to reach majority, which slowed down the election process.

Taylor Carr, the assistant director of Non-Traditional Student Commission, said pro-con debates are important in order for people to make an informed vote. Without these debates, people are just going to keep voting the same, he said.

Concern was also expressed about how voting by hand would affect the overall results of the elections. Assembly members said votes by hand could skew the results because members could be influenced by how others vote, whereas secret ballots allow members to base their votes off of what they really think.

The assembly also considered bringing the candidates back in for questioning in hopes that it would give members more information from which to base their votes.

Despite concerns, one vote that accomplished a majority was done by hand. Barnhart was the first candidate elected as a Board of Trustees liaison. This left three candidates left to choose from to fill the final open position.

At least six votes into the election process, Casey was the second candidate elected into the Board of Trustees through a vote by hand.

Although members considered postponing the elections, the budget meetings will be held at the next two SA meetings, so they would have been pushed back three weeks.

Jeff Rickert, the SA comptroller, and Sima Taslakian, the SA parliamentarian, discussed the guidelines for this year’s budget meetings.

The assembly serves to either approve or disapprove the Finance Board’s recommendations for student organizations that applied for funding. The assembly will review the budget in four categories: operating budgets, fully funded budgets, non-funded budgets and partially funded budgets.

Bills in their respective categories will be adjusted to reflect any changes, if needed, and will be put on a ballot and voted on. Organizations can ask questions about funding after each vote.

Bills SA feels do not have enough information will be set aside until the end of the category when organizations will have the opportunity to explain what they need funding for, Taslakian said. Any bills set aside will also be debated.

Common reasons the Finance Board does not give funding is due to missing signatures, missing proof of cost, failure to provide talent and space confirmation, rounding off numbers and assuming the board knows what the organization’s intentions are, according to “Assembly Budget Meetings-Info and Rules,” distributed at the meeting. SA also does not fully fund events for food, student travel, student DJ or artist, prizes or giveaways, book or magazine subscriptions, decorations of any kind, clothing or advertisements other than kiosks.

 

Published on April 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm

Contact Laurence: lgleveil@syr.edu | @lgleveille