By Rachel Jacobi, News Editor
We are entering this semester without an elected person filling the role of SCWSC president. How did this atypical state of affairs come to pass?
Let us recap the complicated events of last semester.
Elections for the student council of 2019-2020 were originally slated for May 2, 2019, but when the results were posted, the winner for the role of president was conspicuously absent. Instead, there was a vague postscript: “Due to a lack of clarity in campaign policy, a new election will be administered for SCWSC president this Monday.”
On May 5, 2019, an update by the canvassing committee was posted, citing no clear winner for the role of SCWSC president as a result of “multiple allegations regarding both SCWSC [p]resident [c]andidates’ campaigns due to rule ambiguities and rule breaking.” There was no clarity provided about what precisely the allegations were against the candidates. A reelection was scheduled for May 6, 2019 between the two candidates, Talya Saban and Shanee Markovitz.
On May 6, 2019, instead of posting the results of the reelections, the canvassing committee announced that the candidates were once more in violation of various stipulations. This time the violations were specified. The canvassing committee stated, “With this second round of election came the stipulation that all posters and campaigning materials must be down by Monday, May 6th at 9:30 am, no exceptions. As of this morning, multiple posters and promotional materials were still up in favor of both candidates in the school building and in the dorms, and as a result we feel it is most appropriate that both candidates for SCWSC [p]resident are disqualified.”
Currently, the recently enacted constitution that was ratified on May 29, 2019, includes as part of its election campaign guidelines in Section IV, that “no campaign materials may be publicly displayed before the first day of campaigning begins.” The previous constitution did not include this stipulation in the campaign guidelines.
Because the canvassing committee was comprised of graduating seniors, the second reelection was delegated to the Office of Student Life. At this time, no members of the Office of Student Life have responded to our requests for information on what the reelection process will look like or when it could be expected to take place.
While both previous candidates have been termed eligible to run for the SCWSC president position again this fall, neither have supplied a comment about what their plans are for the upcoming reelections.