NOTE FROM THE EDITOR: The following article is largely about motions in the SAB introduced by me, who also wrote this article, and as such, it is almost certainly biased. Please take the following article with a grain of salt, and if you are interested in writing articles about student government for Leapfrog, please reach out, so this conflict of interest can be avoided in the future. The article begins below.
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Feb. 28 — At the February 18 Open Meeting of the Student Advocacy Board, several motions were voted on and passed, while others are being explored further.
The Election Reform Amendment, introduced by Queer Students Representative Blaise Paine, F23 passed, with 15 yeas, 2 nays, and 2 members abstaining. The amendment to the SAB Charter would change the method of voting in SAB elections from First-Past-the-Post to Score Voting. In the current system, every voter votes for one candidate in each race, and whichever candidate receives the most votes wins. In Score Voting, every voter rates each candidate 1 to 5 based on their preference for the candidate, and the candidate receiving the highest average score wins. In the next election, the amendment will be put to a referendum in front of the entire student body, and will require a 2/3rds vote to be added to the charter and go into effect.
A recurring question in the Student Advocacy Board is how to fill vacant seats, of which there are currently two (see Student Advocacy Board special election results) The last two special elections were provided for by one-off votes, but another amendment introduced by Rep. Paine would modify the charter to settle the question and make all future vacancies filled by Special Election. This amendment met some resistance, though, and was answered with an alternative amendment introduced by Race & Ethnicity Rep. Cherish McNeil, F21, which would instead offer the vacant seat to the runner-up in the last General Election before initiating a Special Election.
The likely path forward at this time seems to be offering both amendments to the student body, and leaving the decision on which method to use to the whole student body.
Other motions passed at the meeting include a third motion introduced by Rep. Paine, which establishes the Hampshire College Student Code, a document that would record all policy and programs adopted by the Student Advocacy Board in one spot, collected and arranged for easy future reference. That motion passed unanimously, with 18 yeas, 0 nays, and 1 member abstaining.
Another motion establishes the Hampshire College StudentsList, a system by which students could send emails to the student body through a SAB-moderated mailing list. Introduced by Rep. Paine and co-sponsored by Transfer Student Rep. Libby Harrity, F23, the system closely mirrors a system that existed at the New College of Florida. The motion passed with 14 yeas, 0 nays, and 5 members abstaining.
Rep. Paine has introduced another motion that has not yet been discussed, an amendment that would establish an Election Code for the SAB, including the right for candidates to have a ballot statement, and standards for the honest presentation of referendums like those for charter amendments, as well as creating basic standards for the conduct of election campaigns.
Rep. Harrity also mentioned working with Aidan Alice West, the staff facilitator of the CFF and QCAC, on programming and safe spaces related to grief.
DISCLOSURE: The author of this article is the Queer Representative on the SAB, and introduced most of the motions discussed in this article.
REVIEWED BY: Ryan Nivus, Axen Wetzel, Verne Gulley
