Groups appoint students to election committee

The Marvin Center Governing Board and Program Board each appointed their representatives to the Elections Coordinating Committee last week; the MCGB appointed senior Timothy Ziese, and the PB appointed senior Kathryn Santo.

Under the new Joint Elections Committee Charter Act passed Feb. 8, the Student Association is able to appoint two representatives, who will be nominated by the SA president and confirmed by the SA Senate. A fifth member will be a joint appointment among the SA, MCGB and PB. The SA Senate will begin the confirmation process Feb. 21.

The JEC charter passed by the SA Senate aims to correct many of the problems that were experienced during last year’s elections. “The overly restrictive nature of last year’s charter created an election season in which violation reporting became a political tool,” said Sen. Ben Traverse (CCAS-U), a senior who ran for president last year. “This year’s charter will hopefully leave election complaint -filing as solely a method of maintaining a clean election.”

SA senators have also been concerned with SA President Audai Shakour’s Colonial Trader Web site, which was officially launched last month under the domain name of gwlist.com. In its current state, gwlist.com has only minimal capabilities and is still being tested by members of the SA and a limited number of student organizations.

“A few senators have asked the executive to hold off on publicizing the site, and we are currently working to make sure that the entire SA is satisfied with the product before we try to get more students on board,” said sophomore Casey Pond, Shakour’s vice president of public affairs.

-Andrew Ramonas