Debate slows UA meeting

It was business as usual at last night's UA meeting. Most of the meeting was spent discussing issues pertaining to elections for next year's UA and the dates and procedures for any votes on student referenda. But at the end of the meeting, little had been resolved concretely. Also, quorum broke down late in the meeting, and two issues that had been postponed until its end -- emergency funding for the Freshman Class Board, and an amendment to a motion about elections -- were not dealt with at all. In response to allegations made last week by UA representative and College senior Dan Schorr that the Nominations and Elections Committee had purposely delayed a decision on a date for student voting on constitutional reform, the NEC brought a series of dates to the body for approval. Elections for next year's UA have been slated to be held on March 28 and 29, NEC Chairperson and College senior Rick Gresh said. Petitions to run for the UA will be due to the NEC by March 14. Gresh and NEC Elections Chairperson Roy Fu, a College senior, also brought a revised copy of the NEC's Fair Practices Code for Referenda for UA approval. The revised FPCR would replace the "skeletal" document that currently governs elections on referenda, Gresh said. But when the UA began to discuss the proposed FPCR, the body ran into problems. Schorr, acting on what he said was a verbal agreement from Gresh, prepared an amendment to the FPCR that would guarantee that any referenda submitted to the NEC "at least ten academic days prior to the spring UA elections" would be administered on the same day as the UA elections. Last week, Schorr had voiced concern that if his referendum on constitutional reform was not given to the NEC prior to spring break, it would not be voted upon on the same day as UA elections. But before the amendment could be made, a lengthy debate began over the UA's role in approving the FPCR. The debate started when UA representative and College sophomore Adam Strunk proposed an amendment to remove a section of the FPCR that would make signers of a petition on a referendum financially responsible for any penalties levied by Residential Living for posters about the referendum. Currently, the NEC and the UA are liable for these fines. But Gresh said the UA had to approve the document in its entirety, or the NEC would have to run referenda elections according to the existing FPCR. He added that deleting any sections of the document would mean rejecting the entire FPCR. Schorr then moved to approve the FPCR, with his amendment attached, sending it back to the NEC for a final decision on whether or not the referendum election will be on the same day as UA elections. The motion passed. But Gresh said that Schorr's amendment would have to be approved by the NEC -- and if it is not, the UA will have rejected the FPCR. Because UA Secretary and College sophomore Mosi Bennett left the meeting immediately after the vote on Schorr's motion, quorum broke down, and Strunk's amendment was not fully discussed. After the meeting, Schorr said he had spoken to Gresh and resolved his concerns. "After talking to Rick, I am very confident that he and the NEC will do what is in the best interests of the referendum," Schorr said.