The senate proposal failed Tuesday night to gain the two-thirds
majority it needed to be passed by the Undergraduate Students
Association Council and move to a student vote in a special
election.
Council voted 7-5 for the proposal, falling short of the nine
votes it needed to pass.
The voting fell directly along slate lines, with the Bruins
United councilmembers voting in favor of the proposal and Student
Power! councilmembers voting against it. The three independent
councilmembers voted against the proposal as well.
Campus Events Commissioner Jason Kaminsky, Student Welfare
Commissioner Tracy Pham and Community Service Commissioner Farheen
Malik are the independents on council.
The commissioners were particularly invested in the vote, since
they would lose voting power if the senate system were implemented,
save for a collective veto.
If the vote had passed, the senate constitution would have been
submitted to the student body for approval by a special
election.
General Representative Brian Neesby, author of the proposal,
said he will try to gain the necessary signatures on a petition to
force a special election before spring quarter, so candidates in
the student government general election can be elected in the new
system.
Neesby attempted a similar campaign last year after the proposal
failed to pass the council table. But several hundred of the
signatures collected last year could not be verified, in some cases
because they were illegible, leaving the petition nine signatures
short of the required 10 percent of the undergraduate student
population.
The unverified signatures became a central issue of debate
during Tuesday’s vote. Several councilmembers argued that the
number of signatures collected meant there is enough concern in the
student body on the issue to warrant a special election.
“It should have been on the ballot last year,”
Neesby said. “Students had a right to vote on it last year,
and they weren’t given that.”
Opposing councilmembers said the senate proposal should be on
the spring general election ballot instead.
“A special election would require us to draw thousands of
dollars from our funds” that might otherwise go to student
groups, said External Vice President Jeannie Biniek, who voted
against the proposal.
She added that special elections historically have a lower voter
turnout than general elections, and that waiting until the spring
ballot would give voters more time to research the issue.
Other councilmembers said that the special election money would
be a small price to pay for reform, and maintained that students
deserve to decide for themselves.
“Why should we shut our entire constituencies out when all
these policies affect them?” said Academic Affairs
Commissioner Michelle Sassounian.