Special Senate Elections Slated to Fill Vacancies

Author: Thomas Drescher

The Student Government Association (SGA) will hold special elections this Thursday and Friday to fill five vacancies in the Senate. A shortage of candidates for the initial elections has left the SGA Senate without Senior, Inter-House Council (IHC), Senior Feb, Cook and Brainerd Representatives. A list of new candidates for the unfilled positions will be available later this week.

The following students were elected to the SGA Senate: Andrea LaRocca '05.5 (Atwater), Doug Campbell '06 (Ross), Emily Halnon '06.5 (Wonnacott), Keith Williams '07 (First-Year), Ashley Timidaiski '07 (First-Year), Kathrin Schewsinger '06 (Sophomore), Elizabeth Johnston '06 (Sophomore), Jimmy Hickey '05 (Junior Full-Year), Susanna Gorski '05.5 (Junior Fall/Winter) and Mike Bolger '04 (Senior).

Voter turnout this year was relatively normal, said SGA Director of Membership Courtney Taylor '04. Actual numbers are not being released. According to Taylor, there are rarely more than a few candidates for each position, so having a number of unfilled spots is not a big shock.

"Senate elections are generally not widely contested," said Taylor, "so I was not particularly surprised that some of the positions only had one candidate."

Section E-4 of the SGA Constitution states that: "In the event of a vacancy of a Student Senate or dormitory representative position, a new election will be held from Thursday at 6 p.m. until the subsequent Friday at 6 p.m., the week following the vacancy."

According to the Constitution, then, SGA Senate special elections should have been held last week, Thursday, Oct. 16 and Friday, Oct 17. After careful consideration, however, Taylor and SGA President Sam Rodriguez '04 opted to move the elections back a week for a number of reasons.

First, holding the election over fall break would have been difficult. "We thought that it would be extremely unfair to the candidates if the election were held over vacation, when many students would not have access to e-mail," explained Taylor.

"After realizing this," she added, "we discussed the issue with Secretary of the College and Professor of Political Science Eric Davis and Dean of Student Affairs Ann Hanson. [They both] agreed that it would be unreasonable to hold elections over break, and advised us to hold them this week instead of last."

Taylor also pointed out that the purpose of the clause in the SGA Constitution regarding special elections is to ensure that all positions are filled before the second Senate meeting. The SGA's decision to hold the elections a week later should have no negative impact in terms of the functioning of the Senate.

It is hard to say whether or not the results of this election indicate that students are largely indifferent to campus politics. Rodriguez hopes to reconcile the student body and the SGA. "He wants to make the SGA more available to students, and make students more knowledgeable about the SGA," said Taylor.

Taylor speculates that many Middlebury students are not involved in, or aware of, student government because they are too busy with other activities. "We have a very active student body," explained Taylor. "On top of a rigorous academic schedule, this might not leave time for student government."

Candidates are now running for all five unfilled positions, so by week's end there should be no vacancies in the SGA Senate. The special elections will begin on Thursday at 6 p.m., and conclude at the same time on Friday evening.