Prospective candidates for the 2001 Student Association elections have submitted their petitions of 411 student signatures to the Joint Election Commission as the campaign season begins for the Feb. 27 and 28 vote.
Students will see several changes to this year’s election, including new campaign rules and referenda on the ballot.
Three students, Roger Kapoor, Daniel Loren and Bob Simon have submitted petitions to run for SA president.
The Office of the Registrar will review the candidates to make sure they are in good academic standing and confirm their candidacy this week.
Kapoor has worked in the Student Association for two years and currently serves as the SA’s director of campus spirit.
Loren is currently the chairman of the International Affairs Society and a former Elliot School undergraduate senator.
Simon, who has never worked in the SA, is president of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity.
“Having no SA experience is a very good thing because I’m not involved in all the politics,” Simon said. “I know how to run an organization, period.”
Campaigning began Feb. 5, but presidential and senatorial candidates await JEC approval of posters, buttons and other campaign paraphernalia. Candidates will be allowed to begin postering in specific locations Feb. 21, said JEC Chairman Joshua Hiscock.
Hiscock said students will see a number of notable differences in this year’s election. SA candidates will only be allowed to campaign in designated areas, including Kogan Plaza, the Quad, the corner of 20th and F streets, the H street steps of the Marvin Center and the Medical Center.
Almost every residence hall has imposed specific rules for the campaign, including restrictions on campaigning hours in the halls and the amount of materials candidates can place in student mail boxes, Hiscock said.
At the end of last month, the SA Senate rejected a Residence Hall Association proposal to reduce the amount of flyers candidates can put in students’ mailboxes from seven to three.
“University residence halls have always been able to limit the amount of postering and mailings, but many more have put together individual proposals this year,” Hiscock said.
Kapoor said he understood the election rules and planned to “have fun and work with the rules” he has been given.
Loren said that it will be difficult to know all of the individual hall rules.
“The JEC and the Senate waited too long to set the rules, causing extra confusion,” Loren said. “The RHA proposal would have streamlined the hall rules.”
Hiscock said at least two referendum topics will be included on the ballot.
Students will vote whether or not to directly fund the SA through an annual student fee of $1 per credit hour.
The other referendum is a new SA constitution proposal co-authored by Loren and SA Sen. Mike Pellegrino (ESIA-U). The new constitution would split the SA into separate undergraduate and graduate bodies and allow for fall freshman elections, Loren said.
“Basically, the new constitution depoliticizes the political process by splitting the Senate into the two bodies,” Loren said.
In past years the JEC oversaw the Program Board and the Marvin Center Governing Board elections, which take place on the same days as the SA elections, but Hiscock said negotiations fell through and the JEC will be strictly supervising the SA election this year.
Last year’s election for SA president between Jeff Marootian and David Burt led to a run off that a week after the initial vote because neither candidate received the required percentage of votes, Hiscock said.
If no candidate receives more than 40 percent of the vote in the election, a run off will take place March 6 and 7 between the two top finishers for any executive or Senate seats, Hiscock said.
