A concerned student's view of SGA

I am writing this letter in response to the running of the 19971998 SGA Executive Board election. After examining the whole process and the way things were handled by the election committee, I do not feel that these elections were run in a manner that gave all of the candidates a fair shot at winning the election.

For one, the times and places for voting were not made public neither before-the election nor during it. As a result, a large portion of the campus community was not represented which is unfair to our non-resident students. This leads me to believe that there is a possibility that the people who actually were at the ballot box could have selected the people whom they wanted to vote in the election, rather than letting everyone vote.

Obviously, I have no way of proving this, but I also have no way of disproving it either. Another inequity that I see is in the election committee itself. Its members are not necessarily neutral, by which I mean that there are definitely some people on the election committee who would benefit from having certain people in office. How can the election committee have two of the incoming members serve on it (the academic chair, as well as the CA P chair)? They definitely have vested interest in who wins and are in power to make sure that those people get in office. Another thing that I question is the fact that two members of the committee, the sitting vice president, and the sitting recording secretary , who were also running for positions, were on the committee for the first part of the election.

Also, there wassome changes of the rules during the election, one of which being the fact that you now had to have one of the committee sign your posters before you put them up, rather than stamping them. Great, but how can you change the rules of an election while it is in progress? Another issue for the discussion is some of the authority and equity in campaigning done by the candidates.

What gives one candidate the right to prevent their competitor from putting an opinion in the school newspaper? 11ris happened when one of the candidates for president wrote an opinion for the paper, while his competitor, who is an editor of the paper, forced the article not to be published by saying that she would pull the lead story of last week's paper and quit the paper if it was published, even though she was given the opportunity to answer. Also, what gives one candidate, who is on the election committee, the right to pull down the poster of a candidate running for treasurer because they believe that it was inappropriate?

Finally, how can the election votes be counted without the candidates being given the opportunity to be present when the votes were counted? And, why did it take three days for the election results to be known by the candidates?

All of these issues are big questions in my mind as to how fair this election was run. Let me make one thing clear. I am not complaining about this election because I lost. I can deal with losing the election if it was a fair election.And, in my opinion, the election was not fair to any of the candidates. nor the students of Cabrini College, who have the most to lose as a result of this.

You can never have a strong SGA if the student~ do not believe that the election to elect its leaders is one that is fair and equitable, and one which the total student body gets to choose their leaders, not just a select few.

Two Cents

nY• CIUdchool8ayonaii Ill wholewileworld lheCOl11111119'i8mentspeaker,whoWIUd it be?

Joe Barilotti, a senior: John Gotti, due to the fact he could teach us legal ways to make a successful career no matter what your field is in this journey we call life upon which we are about to embark.

Jennifer Ashton, a senior: Bill Cosby, because he is from the Philadelphia area. I saw him speak before and he is a great speaker. He is a typical dad who could relate to any of us.

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Sincerely, John

Mack