Editorial SGA ELECTIONS SHOULD BE POSTPONED, REFORMED
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SGA elections unnoticed by students SGA officials cite constitution for time restrictions; multiple candidates sanctioned due to violations of election protocol
As elections for Student Government Association president and vice president approach, students are rushing to decide who the next president will be. form students about the election and debate for the next SGA president and vice president. A Facebook post by senior Casey Short, chair of the public relations committee, promoted the debate on Monday night, just a few hours before the event began. Voting for this year’s SGA elections closes at 4 p.m. March 25. Candidates’ petitions and platforms were due by 5 p.m. March 20. President Aya AL-Namee promoted the debate on Facebook and encouraged voters to read the candidates’ platforms, linking them to the SGA website an hour before the debate. First-year Evan Jackson said he felt that elections were happening “pretty fast.” “I did know the elections were taking place because of a
IJ IDRIZAJ The Vermont Cynic Candidates for SGA president and vice president participate in a debate hosted at Brennan’s March 23. Elections will be held March 24 and 25, and winners will then be announced March 26. few posters I’ve seen,” Jackson said. “I do not know when voting day is.” SGA elections must take day of classes, according to the organization’s constitution. “The constitution says we need a president by April, so we have to condense the election process because what’s the point of starting before spring Francis, chair of the elections committee. This also gives the new president and vice president enough time to choose the speaker of the senate and treasurer, said Patrick Brown, director of Student Life. “I’ve seen posters about
the SGA elections but I do not year Kirsten Fletcher said. “I did not know a debate is going on. I probably do not plan on voting.” First-years Aidan Sullivan, Priyanka Santhanakrishnan and Emilia Difranco also said that they didn’t know about the elections. happening, people have come to my classes and asked me to sign their sheets to get on the ballot,” senior and Kappa Delta sorority member Abigail Blake said. “Someone went as far as coming to my chapter meeting, but other than that I haven’t been following it,”she said.
Sodexo negotiating contract Last week, Sodexo was granted the right to negotiate a dining contract with UVM, according to a March 11 email. Dennis DePaul, the assistant dean for business operations will be the negotiator for UVM, according to the email. Since December of 2013, Sodexo has been working on an extensive process that provided a carefully developed dining contract proposal. Sodexo and UVM have partnered for the past 58 years. Should negotiations end in an agreement, the new contract will begin July 1, 2015, according to the email from Vice Provost Annie Stevens. better,” said Lauren Riecker, a student who transferred from UVM to Rutgers University. “There’s a lot more options and Like us on Facebook
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“There’s going to be a very small number of votes cast. It’s not like half the student body is going to vote,” Francis said. “Who’s going to do the best job of getting their friends and allies to vote for them is what it’s going to come down to and it doesn’t mean you have to be the cool kid, it’s just networking.” Elections packets were made available to sign out March 9, AL-Namee said. “The second you sign out a didate,” she said. “You have a week to collect signatures, so you have a two to three week long process. It always has been like that.” There is a direct relation-
everything seems fresher.” The email describes what UVM is looking for from the new service agreement, including greater integration with academic initiatives in food systems, transparent sourcing and The University will also push for a say in the wages and the email stated.
“I’ve heard that Sodexo is one of the best dining service companies and I think that local food sourcing is a great idea,” sophomore Rachel Snider said. The contract was created by a 14 member committee made up of students, faculty and Sodexo did not comment regarding the new contract due to the ongoing negotiations.
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which is one-sixth of his campaign budget, Francis said.
Course registration delayed due to construction project
to register April 10. “We have a building and
struction project would be a very large building and that students and faculty would have to get around it,” Williams said. “So at the same time we had to change the meeting time between all courses and had to go to 20 minutes between classes.” During the STEM construction project, the University will have less classroom space. The registrar had to decide if the University would build more classroom space or hold the same number of classes with fewer available rooms, Williams said.
be demolished to be part of the larger STEM construction project,” registrar Keith Williams said. Demolition of buildings will start this summer, Williams said. “We knew that the con-
spent time in the fall of 2014 modeling and planning for classrooms, Williams said. “This is a big change, we had a lot of [class]-rooms [becoming unavailable] and the times of classes changing,” Williams said.
Class registration for the fall 2015 semester has been pushed back one week due to construction projects according to an email sent to students
VICTORIA CASSAR The Vermont Cynic A new contract between UVM and Sodexo is being negotiated currently, but the contract should be implemented by July 1.
ship between the amount of people that run in the elections, and the amount of people that turn out to vote, Brown said. He said that although communication happens “more rapidly” with social media, people rely on it too much. “It is a very short period of time, technically, but if you budget your time properly and you’re organized, you could easily achieve the goals that you want,” AL-Namee. “On the day of elections I think candidates are the ones reaching out to students the most,” Short said. “You know letting them know that you would love their support and that’s how we really get the best voter turnout is from individual candidates.” Tyler Davis and Jason Maulucci were sanctioned for not meeting the deadline to turn in their platforms, and as such, they will not be listed on the SGA website, Davis said. They will still be on the ballot and their platforms will be on their campaign Facebook page, he said. Presidential candidate Khalil Lee was also sanctioned, Francis said. Lee didn’t submit any receipts for professional photos he had taken of himself, he said. Due to this infraction, his
Registration will open April 7 for seniors and will continue on for the rest of that week with juniors April 8, registration for
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