Student Assembly members discussed a proposed amendment to change Student Body president and vice president election procedures from approval voting to preferential voting during Tuesday's General Assembly meeting. Student Body President Max Yoeli '12 outlined an amendment proposed by Will Hix '12 who failed to pass a similar amendment last year to elect the president and vice president by preferential voting, or ranking candidates in order of preference. The amendment also aims to remove all candidate eligibility restrictions other than one requiring candidates to be in residence near the College during the following Fall, Winter and Spring terms, Yoeli said. During the meeting, Assembly members debated whether the removal of eligibility restrictions based on disciplinary and academic history would underemphasize the importance of Student Assembly leaders' character. "You should have those requirements because you're assuring that someone with good character is getting that position," Patrick Campbell '15 said. Others argued that disciplinary history is private and has no place in the voting arena. Assembly members also disagreed on the role of the Elections Planning and Advisory Committee, which has been responsible for administering all elections and deciding election procedure in the past. While some stated that the Assembly should have control over its own procedures, others emphasized the importance of giving EPAC sovereignty. "EPAC's goal and function is to be removed from the politics of it all," Rohail Premjee '14 said. "All these decisions we're making should be left to EPAC." Student Assembly members will vote on the amendment at the Assembly's meeting next week.
Boys are suspended from school due to behavioral issues more often than girls, making boys less likely to attend and graduate from college, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Researchers at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and the National University of Singapore determined that over the last three decades, suspension rates for boys in the United States have risen while those for girls have remained constant. The study showed that almost 25 percent of boys had been suspended by the eighth grade compared to 10 percent of girls. The report, titled "The Trouble with Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior," may help explain the lower presence of men on college campuses, given that the national average of college students is 57 percent women. Each suspension lowers the probability that a student of either gender will attend and graduate from college. Although the exact causes of the disparity in suspension rates remains unclear, the trend is a growing concern for scholars and policy makers nationwide, The Chronicle reported.
