No Holds Barred
SGA vetoes bill listing rules for senatorial election
By Mary Czarsty, asst. news editor
Posted on April 6, 2006

Tuesday night, SGA senators voted to veto a bill that would limit the numbers of seats available for next year’s senate, effectively eliminating competition for today’s election.

“When you have a body up for elections, they aren’t going to pass anything that is going to hinder them and make for a more competitive race,” said senator Lucy Hutchinson (Sr.).

According to Ricardo Pineres, former chairman of the Elections Commission, senators representing academic colleges used to be elected in the fall at the same time as residence hall and new freshman executive council senators. Earlier this semester, the SGA’s election policy was amended so that college senators would be elected in the spring. However, the SGA did not write full rules for the upcoming spring elections.

Last week, Hutchinson introduced a bill to govern the currently unregulated senatorial race. It was passed by a large majority of the senate, and continued to the Executive Council, where it was vetoed. President Wesli Spencer (Sr.) advocated the veto to the Senate.

“By not supporting this bill, we have no rules governing our body. Anyone can be a senator,” Hutchinson said.

There are no written rules as to how many senators each academic college can receive, or even how many senators can be elected during the election of residence hall senators in the fall.

“This bill will mean our elections are more competitive and make less seats available next year,” said senator Geary Cox (Jr.). “Would I like to veto this bill and coast into my seat for next year? Yes. But it’s not about what’s best for us, it should be about what’s best for the SGA and for JMU.”

Formerly, senators were divided as on-campus and off-campus representatives. The senate was made up of 30 percent on-campus and 70 percent off-campus senators. Now that changes have been made to the Election Policy, that distinction no longer exists, but there are no clear rules as to how many senators can be elected.

Hutchinson’s bill would make the number of residence hall senators equal to the number of academic college senators. This worried many senators since it appeared to drastically reduce the senate’s size.

“If we don’t veto this bill, it will not accurately represent the campus,” senator Betsey Anderson (Jr.) said.

“I think it is disproportionate because we’re going to have the same amount of residence senators as college senators, and more students live off campus,” senator Kathleen McKay (Sr.) said.

However, Hutchinson argued, the Speaker of the Senate has an unlimited amount of at-large appointments at his discretion.

“What people aren’t grasping is that the Senate can still be the same size as it is now, because the Speaker can allow for as many appointments as he would like,” she said.