Scheduling oversight leads to elections postponement
By J. Robinson Mead, Managing Features Editor
Following concerns of constitutionality raised at last Wednesday's speech night, the elections committee of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) decided to reschedule the freshman senator elections from last Monday to today.

Concerns regarding the timeline of the election were first raised by Russell Kornblith '06, a candidate for freshman class senator. "I read this constitution, which I am running to represent," Kornblith said in his speech Wednesday night.

Article IX, Section B7 of the AAS constitution, which dictates the code of elections, states that "The Elections Committee shall sponsor a Speech Night, an evening preceding the elections by at least one week." Kornblith noted that the speech night was Wednesday night, while the election was scheduled for the following Monday, shorter than the requisite time dictated by the constitution.

"I was a little surprised that the elections committee had not picked up on the segment before, but then I figured that maybe they had and they had decided it was too trivial to be important," he said. "At first I wasn't sure whether or not to bring up my findings publicly, but ultimately I decided that I've always been a boisterous and honest person, and what better opportunity to be boisterous."

"The elections committee met, reviewed the constitution and determined that we had mistakenly scheduled the election date two days early," said Ben Baum '03, a member of the committee. "So, we have worked hard to make the change as efficient as possible-advertising through email, the Daily Jolt, word-of-mouth, posters and table tents."

"What shocked me most was that, as the room cleared, one of the AAS representatives called for everyone to remember that the elections were Monday," said Kornblith. "Although I can see the motive, I did feel slightly belittled."

The most common complaint raised by candidates in their speeches Wednesday night dealt with the speed of the College's network. "The College's method of regulating bandwidth is ridiculously paternal," said Caleb Deats '06.

The candidates also felt that with the new constitution, this would be a good time to affect change. "The future of Amherst College is in our hands," said John Lian '06.

Issue 05, Submitted 2002-10-02 15:18:48