After spring controversy, nominations body nearing fairer process

Student leaders are taking precautions to ensure that the next round of elections to a University governing body will proceed with less friction than last spring.

The Undergraduate Assembly will vote Sunday on a proposal to increase the number of seats on the University Council and another group of student leaders will review a more formal set of guidelines for the University Council application process next week.

The Nominations and Elections Committee is the group charged with distributing seats to minority groups on campus -- a task which critics argued it handled badly behind closed doors last semester.

Earlier in the week, students met to discuss how the Nominations and Elections Committee -- a student group that runs student-government elections and nominates representatives for University committees -- selects students for the UC, an organization of administrators, faculty, staff and students that meets monthly to discuss campus issues.

The meeting -- which was the second of the year -- was prompted by last spring's heated disagreement over the NEC's selection of UC representatives.

The week before, the same committee formally recommended increasing the number of seats the NEC can delegate to the UC from five to seven.

One issue the committee debated was the NEC's criteria for UC selection, which mandate that the most "mis- or under-represented groups" earn seats.

Last semester, minority groups criticized both the NEC's selection of groups to fill the seats, and the selection process in general, which they criticized for its lack of transparency.

NEC Chairman and College senior David Diesenhouse said that because student groups have pushed for increased transparency in the selection process, the NEC plans to make its "somewhat vague" criteria for selection more explicit.

"The problem with the criteria before was that no one disagreed" with them, Diesenhouse said, adding that "mis- or under-represented" was applicable to almost every group interested in a UC seat.

Defining misrepresentation "takes an understanding of history ... and what the issues are on campus. ... It's a multifaceted issue," Asian Pacific Student Coalition Vice Chairman and College senior Wesley Nakamura said.

In order to strike a balance between openness and closed-door policies, the committee discussed the future involvement of UA members in the NEC's selection process.

UA member Spencer Scharff, a College senior, said that a UA liaison would provide an "important check by making sure that a popularly elected student can ensure balance in a process that can't always be open."

Unlike the UA, the NEC selects its own members.

Student groups also suggested that after elections, the NEC should explain why certain groups failed to receive seats.

"I don't necessarily believe that they have to defend each of their decisions, but it should be clear as to how they reached them," said College sophomore Jerome Wright, political chairman for Umoja, an umbrella organization for black student groups on campus.

The NEC resolved to take the evening's suggestions into account when writing its formal application process, which will be reviewed at the next ad hoc meeting sometime next week.

If the NEC proposes a controversial application process, UA Chairwoman and College senior Rachel Fersh said, the UA reserves the right to intervene, adding that she hopes the NEC will draft a proposal that both the NEC and student groups can agree upon.

Nakamura said that he found the meeting productive. However, he added that he hopes for more discussion on "how the NEC could improve its understanding of minority issues so it's better equipped to make decisions on UC seats."

Fersh added that Sunday's deliberation will be a crucial debate for the UA, since it could set precedents for the type of dialogue conducted among student groups and in the student body as a whole.

"I hope that students take notice that leaders of various organizations became involved in this issue. ... If they have an opinion, they should speak up," Fersh said.

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