This year's Student Assembly elections are already getting off to a rocky start.
Due to a discrepancy between the requirements of the Student Assembly Constitution and those mandated by the Election Planning and Advisory Committee, the official list of candidates running for president and vice president will not be made public until tomorrow -- two days after the scheduled release and more than a week after petitions were due.
According to Assembly Vice President Margaret Kuecker '01, the Assembly plans to vote on a resolution at tonight's meeting that would clear up the inconsistency.
The delay can be traced to a specific requirement in the EPAC's list of rules, which states that any student running for Assembly president or vice president must be registered and taking classes for all three terms they are holding office.
Alternatively, the Assembly constitution simply requires that the student be in Hanover or one of its environs.
The difference in requisites was recognized when the EPAC notified several candidates running for one of the two positions that they were ineligible based on their registered enrollment plans for next year.
Part of the Assembly's proposed resolution, which is intended to clarify the misunderstanding, states that for the past four years either the Assembly president or vice president has taken a leave term during the time which they held office -- meaning they were in Hanover but not taking classes.
In the past two years, only the current VP Kuecker has officially been in residence all three terms.
According to Assembly president Dean Krishna '01, "The EPAC is officially confused, and we're officially clarifying things for them."
Krishna said the EPAC's requirements were meant to match those listed in the Assembly's constitution, but an error in translation led to the discrepancy. He added that he does not think the delay will have any negative impact on either the candidates involved or the elections process.
The list of candidates includes those running for president, vice president and at-large members of the Assembly, president and vice president of the 2001 and 2003 class councils, and members of the Committee on Standards and Green Key Society.
