Next year’s candidates for Student Association president and comptroller just got a small extension to their campaigns.

At Monday’s meeting, SA voted to allow limited campaigning to take place during the four-day polling period at the end of the campaign cycle. This voting period could be extended if 10 percent of the student body doesn’t participate, and the restrictions only apply to the presidential and comptroller candidates.

‘It basically aims to face the low voter turnout that we face in November,’ said SA Parliamentarian Marko Markov, who introduced the bill.

Markov said Dana Hill, project coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group, worked with him to make these changes.

The change, in the form of a bill modifying the election codes, allows for campaigning to take place anywhere except in residence halls, computer clusters or through media sources. Like in 2006, students can vote for candidates on the SA web site.

Some examples of campaigning that will now be permitted include passing out flyers and advertising in the Schine Student Center, Markov said.

Budget appeals

Before approving the changes to the election codes, SA heard and voted on appeals carried over from last week’s budget hearing. SA Comptroller Mike Rizzolo presented the Finance Board’s recommendations on the appeals.

Six organizations were recommended to receive no funding. The assembly followed the board’s recommendation, leaving the organizations without financing.

A total of $29,882 was distributed during the appeals phase.

Scholarship update

SA also passed a resolution supporting the effort of the Academic Affairs Committee in creating a new merit scholarship. Though still in development, if created, the scholarship will be available to students who are excelling at SU but entered the university without merit scholarships.

Joe Wieder, chairman of the committee, read an e-mail from Vice Chancellor Eric Spina, who gave his support for the scholarship, saying that just the specifics needed to be ‘nailed down.’

After the resolution passed, Wieder announced his resignation as chairman of the Academic Affairs Committee and as student representative for The College of Arts and Sciences. He said he would not have time to balance his duties with SA and the responsibly of his internship next semester at Sen. Hillary Clinton’s Syracuse office. Wieder has been head of the committee for two sessions.

Elections

The assembly voted on a slew of candidates for various positions both within and outside of SA.

Current SA President Ryan Kelly and Wieder were both elected as liaisons to the university’s board of trustees.

As liaisons, Kelly and Wieder will submit monthly reports to the board’s executive committee. The current liaisons are Wayne Horton, SA president prior to Kelly, and Brandon Mathieu, SA’s senior associate to the president.

Both Kelly and Wieder said they would like to use their positions to help see along the implementation of the study center on South Campus. They ran against two other students, one a finance board member and the other a member of the assembly.

A new chair of the Board of Election and Membership was also voted in. The assembly approved the only candidate, assembly member Alec Sims, a freshman in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. Krystal Beavers, current chair, is going abroad next semester, which would have left the position vacant.

Of the remaining candidates at the meeting, two new assembly members and one University Senate student representative were approved.

Sophomore Ryan Fraleigh and freshman Nayma Silver joined the assembly, while Mike Cox was voted into USen. Cox is also a member of the Finance Board.

Announcements

The meeting, which ran late because of the new members being elected, ended with brief announcements by Cabinet members.

There is a possible candidate for the Judicial Review Board, which will be vacant next semester, Markov said. ‘Although I’m not going to give the name until next semester,’ he said, ‘most of you know the person.’

The last word of the meeting was Kelly’s, as he gave a golden plaque as a gift to Mathieu, who is graduating at the end of this semester.

‘Brandon has pretty much held this organization together, and it’s going to be sad to see him leave,’ Kelly said.

The first assembly meeting of next semester will be at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 3 in Maxwell Auditorium.

Published on April 30, 2007 at 12:00 pm