Student Government voted Monday night to nullify the amendment to their election cycle made in February, reinstating the May-to-May Senate term.
The amendment, which changed the Boston University election cycle from the academic-year system to calendar-year system, reportedly passed with a proxy that should not have been counted.
“We found that the methods used to pass the voting timeline change were unconstitutional,” said Jonathan Donald, one of SG’s judicial commissioners and a College of Arts and Sciences senior. “Howard [Male] had a senator who had missed four consecutive Senate meetings give him a proxy.”
Donald said the former election timeline was to be automatically reinstated unless the Senate were to vote to uphold the calendar-year cycle.
Andrew Cho, a senator, motioned to have the calendar-year timeline reinstated, but SG almost unanimously turned it down.
Donald explained that SG rules dictate that any senator who misses that many meetings must cede their seat and their voting rights, meaning that the senator in question is unable to become or give a proxy.
“The senator who was giving Howard the proxy power was not to be seated senator for that meeting,” he said.
Cherice Hunt, director of communication, said SG is in talks with the administration about how the process of changing the election timeline will work.
“We can’t actually officially say that the change has happened,” Hunt, a College of Communication junior, said.
Sophia Woyda, vice president of internal affairs, said reverting back to the old election cycle would benefit the student body as a whole.
“I think the overturning of the amendment and the return back to the election cycle will allow the freshmen who would want to run for executive board in the spring to have more experience, to allow seniors who would like to run for executive board to do that,” Woyda said.
Woyda, a CAS senior, said she was glad the motion to reinstate the January-to-January election timeline did not pass.
“I personally am happy that it did change back because it really does give the executive board more opportunities to build their team, to work independently over the summer,” she said.
SG also heard arguments from both the BU Anti-War Coalition and the BU Students for Israel group on whether or not SG should endorse or not endorse the sanctions being put up in Iran.
“Our resolution has four parts to it,” said Tyler Cullis, a School of Law student and coalition member. “Most importantly, that the BU student government initiate and support programs … informing the BU student community about the ill-effects of sanctions on civilian life.”
Jack Goldberg, COM senior and member of BUSI, said the sanctions on Iran are justified.
Tarif Ahmed, CAS senior and director of social affairs, said SG is being asked to choose what they stand for and to be leaders.
“We’re being asked to have a spine,” Ahmed said. “[Goldberg] mentioned that there are 100 senators in the United States Congress that voted to pass the sanctions, and I don’t remember being asked for my opinion on the decision they made … [SG has] the discretion to lead, to make choices and to set precedents.”
SG passed a motion to create a committee of five students to send to the BU Anti-War Coalition’s meeting Friday and the BU Students for Israel’s meeting next Tuesday.
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I find it worrisome that the general student body at BU doesn’t know this is going on, that SG is deciding on whether or not SG should endorse or not endorse the sanctions being put up in Iran. I understand Ahmed, he’s right, SG has the discretion to lead. That being said, isn’t the SG supposed to be representative of our student body? Again, this is worrisome. Go, Jack Goldberg!