New Board Will Oversee CCSC Elections

Six months after disbanding the Committee on Elections, Nominations, and Appointments-the group that oversaw Columbia College elections-the CC student council has revamped the body that governs these proceedings.

"Before, I don't think CCSC ever really knew who was running their elections at times," said Beth Katz, CC '06.

Last week, CCSC reviewed the constitutional amendment introducing the elections board that will replace CENA. The new independent group will consist of five non-council members that will publicize, conduct, and officiate all CCSC elections from now on.

A major overhaul of the elections process began in May, when last year's CCSC executive board finished its term by passing legislation to remove CENA from the organization's bylaws.
"Something needed to change to give us a better defined elections process," said Jen Schnidman, CC '06. "There were just too many gray areas in the rules neither CENA nor CCSC really knew how to rectify."

The first trial of this new body will be the first-year class elections later this month.
"Jen and I stepped in to chair these elections because we made these constitutional changes so late in the year, and there is so much to do over the summer to prepare for a September election," Katz said. But she maintained that this is the last time CCSC members will ever be directly involved in administering an election and that the newly-elected members have been actively helping since they day after they were selected.

Last year, CENA's dealings were troubled by a lack of transparency. The body made a series of controversial decisions, including allowing a party to form and run for sophomore class council after the filing deadline had passed, and allowing one of their own former members-who had only recently resigned-to run for executive board.

For the past three years, CENA had been dominated by former chair Christine Jelinek, CC '05, who had the power to appoint the group's other members. Many have said this resulted in the appointment of several of Jelinek's close friends. Many current and former members of CCSC have said that the insularity and favoritism that characterized CENA led to their unwillingness to trust it fully or take it seriously.

Though CENA was decisively abolished on May 1 by a vote of 12-2-1, the need for an independent body to oversee the elections process still existed, so a few council members began working immediately for a solution. At the helm were Katz and Schnidman, both CCSC veterans who said they wanted to see the flawed system fixed during their time at Columbia.

"I'm really grateful to them for taking this on, because it's no easy task to come up with a new constitution, new rules and regulations, and to give up an entire month to administer elections," said CCSC President Michelle Oh, CC '06.

Though there is little difference between the function of the new Elections Board and the now-defunct CENA, the students who comprise the board and the process by which they are chosen are quite different. The board's constitution states that there will always be four members and a chairman, elected by the Executive Board in the spring immediately following the CCSC election.
Though there was concern that it would be difficult to solicit applications from enough interested students who were not affiliated with council, Schnidman said that there were more than enough interested applicants, and that when CCSC interviewed and selected members following their Sept. 11 meeting, they chose students from all four classes and a variety of majors.

"We were able to reach out for the first time to people with a genuine intellectual passion for the political process," Katz said of the new system. She and Schnidman were pleased with the variety of talents the elected students represented, ranging from publicity to event planning to debate moderation.

CCSC has also amended its own constitution to allow for a second document governing the Elections Board. "We now have a separate Elections Board constitution to outline the group's specific responsibilities-it finally makes everything black and white and cut and dry," Katz said. In developing this constitution, Katz and Schnidman considered the input of the rest of the council, and the group's SDA advisors also offered them some outside perspective.

The Elections Board's goal for the first-year election is not solely fairness; it also aims for high voter turnout. A major complaint against CENA was the lack of publicity for the spring executive board candidate forum, as that event was attended almost exclusively by partisan CCSC insiders and fellow candidates, with virtually no undecided voters using the forum as a means to make an informed decision on how to vote.

The Elections Board hopes to rectify these past shortcomings. Among other moves, the board has determined that the September 26 candidate forum will take place in John Jay Lounge, a central location for first-years, and has contacted RAs to try to make attendance a floor social event. It will also provide food and hopes to have CTV film the forum and broadcast it for those who could not attend. "We're confident it will be a well-publicized, fun, exciting event for first-years to come to," Katz said.

With postering beginning today, Katz and Schnidman both encouraged first-year candidates to work with their slates to formulate solid platforms and then get out and meet their peers face-to-face.

"There's a big adjustment period [for first-years]," Schnidman said. "We want this election to be run on substance, and student council in college is a lot different from student council in high school. You can't just go on ideas for homecoming and prom."