In an effort to eliminate campaign financial concerns for students running for Student Assembly president and vice president in the upcoming Spring term elections, the Assembly passed a resolution last night that allocates up to 900 dollars of the budget to subsidize these campaigns.
According to the resolution, the current spending limit of 125 dollars -- which will remain the same -- for a student running for Assembly president or vice president "could deter qualified candidates from running."
The 900 dollars will be divided among up to 10 students, ensuring that no candidate has to spend more than 35 dollars of his or her own money on a campaign. However, in the case that more than 10 people run for the positions, the money will be split up equally among all candidates.
The document was later amended to include a statement requiring the funds to be used solely for campaign finances.
The resolution, which passed without objections or debate, also urges each Class Council to, "subsidize candidates for their respective races for class president and vice-president."
It was also reported that no major changes have been made to the Assembly's response to the steering committee's recommendations, following a period of feedback from campus organizations.
At the meeting, Assembly president Dean Krishna '01 unveiled the Assembly's plan for publicizing the organization's response -- starting tomorrow Assembly members will hang banners and posters, which will be followed by several different blitzes to the general student body.
This Friday, students will also receive a BlitzMail message with the URL of the Internet site where they can vote on the Assembly's response.
According to Krishna, by far the most important aspect of the publicity efforts will be the personal initiative that Assembly members will have to take to talk to friends and fellow students to urge them to vote on the measures.
Assembly members expressed slight concern towards the Assembly's inability to provide every student on campus with a paper copy of the response because of cost issues, but this anxiety was allayed by pointing out that students will be able to print themselves a copy from the Internet site or BlitzMail attachment.
Additional ideas for publicity included wearing shirt ribbons and altering napkins in Food Court to include text that would remind people to vote.
The Assembly's plan to hold discussions resembling fireside chats was also moved forward when a potential new name -- "The 7 O'Clock Talk" -- was announced at the meeting. A possible first topic is "The Honor Code and Honor Code Violations."
The Assembly also announced the committee on administration and faculty relations will begin researching information next term to conduct an eventual review of the D-plan -- which many students felt was ignored by the steering committee's recommendations, according to the Task Force report.
