At the final meeting of the semester Monday night, Student Union President Jon Marker swore in the Student Union executive board for the 2006-2007 academic year, while five Union committees gave their final reports.

Student Union elections commission chairman David Sideman gave the Union a report about the statistics of the recent e-board election.

In his report, Sideman proposed four possible reasons for the low voter turnout in the election.

Sideman listed the “the negative public image problem of the Student Union” and the fact that “three of the four races were uncontested.”

Sideman also said the low voter turnout and the low number of candidates could be due to the abolishment of the slate system.

“The elimination of the slate system perhaps discourages people to run because people like to run with someone, as a concerted effort,” he said. “The lack of a slate system also makes it more difficult to see differences in the vote.

“I’m not saying it should be changed,” he continued, “but I’m saying I see this correlation and I think this is something that needs to be worked on.”

Finally, Sideman cited problems SUEC encountered with advertising.

“The unavailability of outlets such as the GSU, Warren [Towers] and West [Campus], which were only available the last minute [may have contributed to the low voter turnout]. There was also the problem with communication with [Buildings and Grounds] about our posters in front of Marsh Plaza.”

Sideman said some of the problems could have been solved had SUEC formed earlier in the year.

How to Be You Committee chair Elena Quattrone requested the allocation of $200 to print two copies of their freshmen survival guide to present to the Dean of Students. The Union voted to allocate the money with a vote of 13-1-0.

The academic affairs committee continued to work with academic advising by compiling their information from student surveys into a single spreadsheet. The committee is also in contact with Associate Vice President for Enrollment and Student Affairs Laurie Pohl about the possibility of testing the effectiveness and necessity of having course syllabi and booklists online by doing a trial with one of the college’s this summer.

Technology committee chairperson Andrew Golden said despite his best efforts to improve technology on campus, he was limited by the administration.

“I came into this hoping getting a lot done, and I found myself bogged down in administrative red tape,” the CAS senior said.

Regarding wireless expansion, Golden said Marker and Secretary Drew Phillips will be meeting with President Robert Brown.

“President Brown said he really wants to have wireless across campus and he’s willing to get us the money,” he said.

However, Golden noted that Director of Information Technology Jim Stone said it would take “millions upon millions of dollars to get it campus wide.”

In his secretarial report, Drew Phillips requested the allocation of the rest of the Union budget, $343, to put towards advertising for the Student Union in Warren Towers and the GSU link during the first week of the fall semester.

The motion passed unanimously.

In his executive report, Marker said he will be meeting with the student life committee, which is working on the guest policy and FURPA policies.

In their final executive board reports, both Marker and Goldberg gave advice to the General Assembly members regarding the future of the Union.

Goldberg stressed the importance of communication within the U nion.

“Communication,” he said. “I’m not sure that I did a good job with it, but I don’t think that anyone in the room can really say we did a good job with communication … Just talk, if you talk, you’d find out a lot of things you think are not right.”

Marker expressed thanks and words of encouragement to the General Assembly, as he leaves the post he has held for the past two years.

“I just want to take this last opportunity, after two years, to just thank everyone,” he said. “I know that over time it comes back to ‘Jon Marker’s Union,’ but that’s really not how I’ve seen it and I really hope that all of you felt that you’ve had a hand in crafting that.”