SUEC deadline passes with little notice

With the candidacy deadline for the upcoming student government elections passing yesterday, many potential applicants were unaware and uninformed petitions were due, according to Student Union Elections Commissions Vice Chair Brian Sirman.

Sirman, a College of Arts and Sciences junior, was appointed to SUEC Monday and yesterday said a lack of advertising prevented students of the chance to run in next month’s Student Union and college government elections.

As of last night, there were three slates who applied to run for the Union Executive Board and two each for CAS Forum and the College of General Studies, Macom said. The following schools, however, are currently uncontested: School for the Arts, Local Student Union, School of Management, College Of Communication and School of Education. The University Professors Program and College of Engineering have no slates.

Sirman said a lack of advertising was the result of last minute SUEC appointments.

CAS freshman and former Warren Towers Senator John Macom was named the SUEC chair just two weeks before the candidate application deadline. The former SUEC chair, George Perry, resigned in February.

SUEC is comprised of a chair, vice chair, and up to five other commissioners. After Perry resigned, SUEC was left with only one commissioner, Sirman said.

“SUEC is in charge of elections, and there is no other body in charge who could have taken over the responsibility,” Sirman said. “Probably, if they had a full slate of commissioners, even though there was no chair, the commissioners could have run without the chair.”

Macom said time constraints hindered massive advertising plans for this year’s elections.

“I would have liked to done more, but being appointed so late into it, it was really difficult,” Macom said.

Macom said he sent letters to college governments and RHAs, and ran one print ad in The Daily Free Press. However, Sirman criticized the amount of people such modes would reach.

“There are 415 people in [Shelton] and at any given RHA meeting, there might be six students showing up,” Sirman said. “People think RHA is a great way to get the word out but its really not. You get it out to seven people in a building.

“I think that’s part of the reason there’s such slate apathy, because there’s not effective advertising. You have to seek out more creative means of getting the word across.”

Macom defended the advertising efforts, although he admitted SUEC was “pressed for time.” However, he said students interested in running on a slate would have cared enough to look for the notices.

“Basically, some students were [uninformed] because there is a population who don’t get involved,” Macom said. “But then there are people who do pay attention, and I think those are the ones who have been following it.”

Despite the question of effective advertising, the elections will commence.

Macom said he plans to appoint the fifth SUEC commissioner on Monday because according to the Constitution, SUEC needs at least five commissioners to operate elections. Claire Sellers and Mary Wozniak are the other SUEC commissioners.

In preparation for the campaign, Macom will hold a mandatory candidate meeting on Wednesday with the first debate scheduler for March 27.

The debate will allow time for all slates to make a speech. Then, the Union E-board slates will be asked questions from a five-person panel, Macom said.

“I want questions to come from people who have been here, and who understand the bigger picture,” Macom said.

The second debate will be held on April 3, and will allow all contested college slates to pose questions to each other. The audience will also be allowed to ask questions.

Voting will take place on April 4, 5 and 6.

Macom refused to give the names of the applicants, citing adviser Allen Ward’s request to withhold the names until the students are approved by the Student Activities Office