To see The Daily Reveille’s Student Government election page, click here.After two and a half weeks of intense campaigning in Free Speech Alley, four debates and hundreds of pushcards, today is voting day. Students can vote by logging into PAWS and clicking “Student Services” and “SG Spring 2010 Election.”Each student can vote for SG president, vice president and University Court justices. Students can also vote for the college council president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and senators for their individual college. The presidential and vice presidential candidates are Brooksie Bonvillain and Chris Sellers of “Leading the Way,” J Hudson and Dani Borel of “StudentsFIRST,” Theo Williams and Millena Williams of “Geauxing the Distance” and Bryan Wooldridge and John Craig of “Two Kings for LSU.”One of two referendums appearing on the ballot concerns changes to the Student Government Constitution. Arts and Sciences Senator Aaron Caffarel and Basic Sciences Senator Jared Bourgeois authored the legislation, and the bill passed Senate almost unanimously. The changes are to clear discrepancies in the Constitution and to clarify each branch’s role in SG, Caffarel said. Some changes to the Constitution include elimination of the Trial Court, reapportionment of senators to number of students, a one-term limit for SG presidents, fall University Court elections and college councils’ move to the executive branch.Elimination of the Trial Court was the most controversial issue during Senate, Caffarel said. Sean Horridge, University Court chief justice, spoke on behalf of keeping Trial Court at the Feb. 17 meeting. “The purpose of a Trial Court is it’s consistent with every governing body or branch in the country,” Horridge said. “Why someone should have the right to appeal is what this comes down to.”The second referendum on the ballot allows students to vote to fund one of three initiatives. The choices are to put bike pumps at existing bike racks, to expand Middleton Library’s clicker rental system and to increase mixed paper recycling and recycling awareness around campus. The outcome of the vote will allow $5,000 to fund one of these initiatives from the Senate Contingency Account, said UCAC Senator Cody Wells. “We’re not completely decided yet where we want to pull the money from,” Wells said. “There’s been a rumor that someone will write a bill that will take it out of our Student Initiative Fund.”Wells said he will write a bill in Senate after students vote for one of the three initiatives. Voting starts at 7 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m. Election results will be announced March 24. If necessary, a runoff election would be March 30 and results would be announced March 31.—-Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected].
Student Government voting begins today at 7 a.m. on PAWS
March 22, 2010