Last week, this board hoped to write an editorial in today’s paper commenting on the aftermath of the election, which we believed would finally, finally have its resolution Thursday night.
Instead, here we are — still without a 2017-18 student body president, with the respect hard-won by decades of strong student governance weakening every day.
The Board of Elections has caught plenty of criticism in the past few weeks. Much of it is well-deserved. But many of the problems the board has faced come from structural issues, not mistakes that this particular board has made. To avoid another fiasco like this year’s election, the BOE needs some help. These reforms would also improve student governance overall.
First, change the Student Code to give the BOE less leeway in how points can be awarded for infractions. Through all hearings of candidates and ex-candidates, we’ve seen that the board has a lot of say in how much someone is punished — and just a few points are the difference between keeping a candidate as a potential president and removing their chances altogether. Surely we can make this process more precise.
Next, another adjustment to the Student Code: reexamine every possible charge and ask “Does this electoral offense really hurt anyone? If not, why do candidates get in trouble for doing it?”
We’re sure the myriad offenses were written for a reason, but they’ve gotten far too bloated to be practical. The longer the list gets, the more likely another election will get tied up like this one.
Finally, give students more say in who sits on the board. Yes, we elected the current SBP, Bradley Opere, and he appoints plenty of other leaders with control over our lives, but the members of the BOE can knock out presidential candidates with the stroke of a pen. Even if we disagreed with every single thing Opere did and every cabinet leader he appointed (for the record, this isn’t true — we think many of them are doing good work), at least they will all go away at the end of the year. The BOE’s actions have long-lasting consequences, so its membership must be more carefully scrutinized.
Consider this election a wake-up call. Before this spring, we were pretty comfortable with the past roles of the BOE — certifying votes and overseeing the occasional hearing.
We are genuinely concerned about whether students will be able to maintain their freedom to self-govern in the coming weeks and months. Past generations fought for that right, and it’s even more important right now — we are certainly not comfortable leaving South Building with uncontested power.
