After a presentation by now-former Board of Elections chairman Joe Pavel, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, the Undergraduate Senate certified the results of the spring Student Government elections held March 5 and 6.
Though many questions arose regarding the presidential elections, it was found by the BOE that neither write-in votes nor abstentions would have had an impact on the result.
Per BOE policy, write-in votes must have a first name and last name to count, and the spelling of those names must be close to the actual spelling. The BOE did not count 47 votes for simply "John Eric." However, the votes added to the valid, full-name votes for write-in presidential candidate John Eric Lingat did not take away from the majority vote belonging to Joe Vidulich, president-elect and a junior in the School of Public Affairs, because "Mr. Vidulich won by such a convincing margin," Pavel said.
In his presentation, Pavel gave recommendations to future BOE members, specifically regarding advertising for the mandatory BOE information sessions for those interested in running. He said one of the most successful approaches to increasing interest in the elections was through clubs and schools on campus relaying the information to interested students.
Pavel's resignation took effect directly following the March 25 meeting of the Senate.
At the meeting, Vidulich said applications for cabinet positions are now available on the ausg.org Web site.
In other news, the Senate voted to reject a bill regarding AU's stance on the presence of military recruiters on campus. The bill supported recruiters on campus but did not support the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, deemed discriminatory by the SG.
The "don't ask, don't tell" policy states that anyone serving in the U.S. military is not allowed to discuss his or her sexual orientation, and that as long as that person hides his or her sexual orientation, officers are not allowed to investigate. To receive federal funding, a university must allow military recruiters on campus.
Many senators on both sides of the bill said the university's administration most likely won't put any policy against military recruitment into effect because federal funding would be cut in that case.
Last year the SG passed a bill to not support military recruiters on campus because of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. The recently failed bill was to reverse that policy.
The SG also appointed Caitlin Hodgkins as the new Judicial Board chairwoman at the March 4 meeting of the Senate. Hodgkins, a sophomore in SPA, is currently the Senate's parliamentarian and is the first woman to be appointed chair of AU's Judicial Board.
The next meeting of the Undergraduate Senate will be held April 1 at 2:30 p.m. in Kogod 118 and is open to the public.
