DeKALB — The Student Government Association reformed election procedures and voted on a new senator stipend bill on Friday.
ELECTION PROCEDURE CHANGES
The senate voted on two bills revising the election process, Senate Bills 57038 and 57039.
Senate Bill 57038 extends the spring election schedule and enforces stricter election regulations.
The election commissioner must now be appointed by the first scheduled senate meeting, and a call for Board of Election nominees must be made by the second-to-last October SGA meeting. This pushes everything around a month forward from where it was previously.
“In terms of timelines for elections, everything has been moved up slightly,” Senate Speaker Nathan Gonzalez said.
The bill also establishes guidelines for acceptable campaigning. It forbids campaigning around any classrooms between 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays, any libraries except for posting materials on bulletin boards, the Huskie Bus Line, door-to-door solicitation in residence halls and 100 feet from any polling station during Election Day.
Campaigning is allowed at the Holmes Student Center except for any floors that include hotel rooms and the MLK Commons up until polls close.
“You can not remain present when they are actively voting,” Gonzalez said. “Your presence could actively influence their vote.”
Senate Bill 57039 clarifies the language of the SGA bylaws regarding executive branch elections, specifying that if no candidate running in a three-person race for an executive position receives a majority of the votes, the least popular choice will be eliminated. The two remaining candidates will then head into a run-off election.
Additionally, SB 57039 says that legislative election candidates will be ranked by voters based on preference. A “no vote” option serves as a vote against a candidate if they’re the only option. If they receive more no votes than valid votes, they will be eliminated.
The senate passed bills 57038 and 57039 in a 10-0 vote with one abstention and a 10-1 vote respectively.
SENATOR STIPEND REVISIONS
A proposal to repeal a senator stipend was initially introduced at a February meeting, though it was tabled until further notice.
The stipend was a cash bonus granted to senators during their term for exemplary work required effort that goes beyond their usual duties.
Previously, the stipend was simply a predetermined amount awarded to senators by the senate speaker who went beyond the required duties like community service, outreach and attending required training meetings.
A new and revised senator stipend was reintroduced on Friday for its final reading. It now introduces a system that awards points for exemplary behavior.
Gonzalez said the intention was to “tweak the specific requirements themselves” rather than axe the bill entirely.
“It’s what you do afterwards that gets you the senator stipend,” Gonzalez said. “That’s what we’ve done through a point system scale that will be found in Appendix C of the bylaws.”
Appendix C of the SGA bylaws dictates the awarding of points as follows:
Point System
- First legislation written/passed: Five points
- Each subsequent legislation written/passed: Three points
- Chairing a single committee: 10 points
- If chairing two or more committees: Five points
- Sponsoring legislation after required minimum: One point
- Serving on additional committees beyond required minimum: Three points
Under the new system, the calculation of points is not limited to the senate speaker but to anybody.
“Often the speaker will be in charge of calculating the points, but because everything here is public record, anyone can calculate the points,” Gonzalez said.
The senate unanimously passed this bill in an 11-0 vote.
The next and final SGA meeting of the semester will be held at 4:30 p.m. on Friday in the Sky Room of the Holmes Student Center.
