The Clarion
www.brevard.edu/clarion
Volume 77, Issue 29 Web Edition SERVING BREVARD COLLEGE SINCE 1935
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May 4, 2012
2012-13 SGA Presidential elections
By Park Baker
Editor in Chief
This past Tuesday SGA held Presiden
tial elections for the upcoming 2012-2013
academic year. All positions except SGA
President were uncontested. An amendment
passed last year in the SGA Constitution
removed the requirement to have an election
for uncontested positions. Voting took place
via traditional ballot in Myers Dining Hall and
since the voting took place on Reading Day,
commuter students were given an electronic
ballot via email.
The announcement of elections was sent
out via campus email on Monday at 10:30
a.m. and students were given approximately
24 hours to make informed decisions on the
candidacy of Mark Moseley and Elise Labus.
Elections were held throughout the following
day, with Labus taking the win. Concerns
have been raised about the timeliness of the
elections and them falling on exam week, in
particular on Reading Day.
“I didn't even hear about the voting until
the day of the election through email,” se
nior Chelsea Freeman said. “Maybe if I had
known about it a week before then I could
have thought about it and then voted. Even if
it was only one day I would have at least had
time and been aware of the elections,”
Freeman is not the only student to have
raised their eyebrows this semester. Blake
Ellege is one of 21 commuter students to
have voted and says, “I personally would have
wanted to have more than 24 hours to get to
know my candidates and vote. I check my
email regularly, but there are a few instances
where I have gone over 48 hours without
checking it. If I had checked my email a few
hours too late Tuesday night, I wouldn't have
had the chance to vote.”
Senior Krisma Sellers expresses the same
sentiment but a different concern.“I would
have voted if it was on a day I was on cam
pus,” she said. “Reading Day was a day for
me to get away before I had to start studying. I
did receive a text about it and wanted to vote,
but I wasn't able to be here.”
The election taking place on Reading Day
raises a question: Does SGA holding elections
on Reading Day violate the college policy
concerning this day? This is the text from the
BC Student Handbook:
All faculty, staff, and administration should
honor the spirit of Reading Day, which is devoted
to preparation and study for finals. Accordingly,
faculty, staff, and administration may not schedule
mandatory activities on Reading Day including:
due dates for assignments, formal presentations,
athletic events, meetings, testing, and/or admin
istration of final examinations other than those
identified by the offieial, eollege-wide finai exam
schedule. Aeeeptable activities, for example, in-
elude: review sessions and study groups, as long
as they are not required and/or graded as course
components. All instructors are expected to be
available to students on Reading Day.
Commuter students were sent a Google
Doc ballot in their campus email, which was
simple enough to use. However, there is an
issue concerning voter privacy and anonym
ity in the voting process. In order to prevent
multiple votes by commuter students, the
Google Document had to be set up to record
the voter’s log in information, which cannot
prevent tampering with ballots.
Clarion staff members attempted to report
to our readers the election results. SGA Presi
dent Lucy Matthews said the numbers were
very close between Moseley and Labus, but
she declined to provide specific numbers.
It is unclear why the actual election result
numbers were withheld. “(They will be re
leased)..If they're important facts. They’re
Lucy’s numbers to share or not,” said Assis-
See 'SGA' page 12
Congi-gtulgtions to Elise Ubus,
youi- new SGA pi-esi^ent