Elections commissioner Nicole Haeberle detailed changes to be made to the student government elections process at the BOG meeting Monday. The changes are part of a yearlong effort to update the student government constitution.One of the biggest changes Haeberle proposed was a separation of first year elections from the other classes. Under the new provisions, the First Year class board elections will be held a week after the class office elections. The shift in dates, Haeberle hopes, will improve candidate numbers."We split the first year elections to ensure a higher turnout in the board election," said Haeberle. "A lot of women I talked to didn't run for board because they ran for president."Increases in allotted campaign funds were also proposed. Upon reviewing past elections commissioners' notebooks, Haeberle noticed that permitted financial expenditures had not be increased for over five years. "Campaigning on only a hundred dollars is rough," said President Elizabeth Jablonski-Diehl.Under the constitution amendments candidates for major student government positions will be allotted $150 to campaign, a $50 increase from the previously amount. The last serious change to the existing policy was a contingency plan in the case of a computer network outage. In a recent election the campus server shut down for twenty minutes leaving students unable to vote. Under the updated constitutional policy the election will be permitted to continue if the shut down does not exceed two hours. If the electronic election ballot is unavailable for more than two hours, the election will be officially canceled for the day and reopened as soon as possible.
In Other BOG Newsu Student Diversity Board will host Religious Awareness Week Dec. 1-5. The week will include a variety of events to promote consciousness and acceptance about religious diversity. Locations and times will be available online on the student activities calendar.
u The Student Government Association is hosting a variety of events on Dec. 8th to celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, in honor of the Saint Mary's patroness. Faculty, staff, and students will be invited to attend a dinner at Noble Family Dinning Hall at 5 p.m., followed by a mass and reception. All participants are encouraged to wear blue as a sign of recognition of the day.
u Student government will host a Christmas feast title 'Christmas Around the World' on Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. in Reignbeaux Lounge, Le Mans Hall. The event will include a variety of Christmas specialty dishes from different culture all over the globe, such as Spain, Germany, and France.
