Board discusses upcoming elections, term lengths

If a proposed Student Government Board referendum passes, the next Board could take on a three-semester term.

At its public meeting on Tuesday, the Student Government Board moved to include a referendum on the ballot that would change its current term, which runs from the first day of spring semester classes to the day before the first day of spring semester classes, to instead follow the academic calendar year.

The Board voted at the public meeting to include the referendum on the ballot. The referendum will pass if three percent of the student body, or roughly 600 hundred students, votes in favor of the referendum. 

According to the proposed referendum, annual elections would be take place in February or March instead of November. The Board Presidents’ and Board members’ terms would officially begin on the last day of the spring semester. 

The Board intends to schedule the referendum on Oct. 9, so that incoming candidates will have time before election packets are due to decide whether or not they want to join a Board that will be in office for a year and a half. 

The Board discussed the idea of the referendum, which would take effect in 2015, during a private meeting on Friday, Aug. 12.

After the transition year, term lengths will be one year long. Nites said election packets will be available on Sept. 23. Barney said the packets will be due Oct. 15 at 5 p.m. 

Elections Code Chair Lauren Barney raised a potential problem with the switch during the meeting.

Barney said seniors would be voting for a new Board during the spring before graduation, so many of those voters would no longer be students by the time the Board takes office. She added that incoming freshman would not be able to vote for the Board members who would be in office during their first year.

“[Freshman] voices aren’t being heard, and old voices are,” Barney said.

Board Member Abby Zurschmit said she thinks the action would give freshmen an opportunity to run and also discussed Barney’s point during open floor.

Although freshmen would not be able to vote, Zurschmit said they would be able to run for Board in the spring.

“It would open the door for younger people to run, but close the door for some people to vote,” Zurschmit said. 

In other action:

The Board amended the Elections Code and then voted on the code, making the changes effective for this year’s election.

Nites asked Barney if she was “okay” with each of the changes before the Board voted on the amendments. 

Barney said she approved of, but did not personally support, the Board’s change to section 207.03 of the Elections Code. The change states that current Board members running for reelection cannot endorse themselves on official occasions, but they can endorse themselves during unofficial occasions.

Board member Andrew Abboud said the Board decided to change the section after they consulted Pitt Office of General Counsel legal services. Abboud said the members of the legal service suggested that restricting Board members running for SGB from endorsing themselves at unofficial events could be ruled as an infringment on the First Amendment.

Barney said the section was her “toughest one,” because she is afraid of biases during the election, but added that she will make sure she and the rest of the Elections Committee look out for candidate bias. 

“If the Board member is showing a bias, we’ll try to curb that,” Barney said. 

Allocations:

Club Tennis Team requested $2,078.08 to send two teams to a tournament in New Jersey. The Board approved $1,169.52 and denied $908.56, in line with the allocations recommendation. 

UPTV 21 requested $1,675.81 for new hardware and software. The Board approved in full, in line with the allocations recommendation.