AS Executive Board update graphic PJ Heusted // AS Review
By PJ Heusted
The Associated Students Executive Board met on Friday, Jan. 15 for their twelfth meeting of the 2020-21 academic year.
AS Election Code
AS Elections Coordinator Mario Alem proposed changes to the AS Election Code to prepare for the VP for sustainability special election.
Alem shared that the changes being presented reflect changes made for the Associated Students Student Senate elections from the fall including removing the petition signature requirement, updating language to match that from the senate elections and updating language regarding the endorsement process for candidates.
Executive Director of Student Engagement Eric Alexander pointed out the possibility for future changes to clarify the grievance process. Alem agreed that conversation about further changes may be necessary but that the current wording of the process for filing grievances would be sufficient for the special election.
Alem additionally shared that there are currently 10 candidates for the position and that all voting will be done through the Western Involvement Network [WIN].
The proposed changes passed with four votes in favor, zero against and zero abstaining.
AS Constitution
Given the results of the fall referendum, there will be an additional voting item in the special election to decide on a constitutional amendment that would officially move senate elections to the spring.
Senate Pro-tempore Sargun Handa brought this item to the Board to start conversation on what this amendment will contain. She asked specifically about concerns that were raised during previous meetings about how to handle the election of graduate and at-large senators given that these positions are frequently held by first year students who would not yet be enrolled at Western in the spring.
Handa expressed concerns about holding these elections at separate times given issues with having a set of senators entering the senate several months after their peers.
AS President Abdul Malik Ford supported holding elections for all senate positions at the same time to increase and maintain the cohesion of the group and echoed the concerns of Handa.
The Board did not come to a conclusion and planned to continue conversation about the constitutional amendment in future meetings.