News
The Student Assembly approved new campus election guidelines to prevent another controversial contest for student body president this spring.
Assembly members also passed funding for a spring Ivy Council conference at their Tuesday night meeting.
Although Assembly members received the seven pages of revised spring election regulations one hour before the meeting, the General Assembly passed the regulations almost unanimously after an hour of discussion.
Key changes to the former election rules include a ban on mass BlitzMail messages issued by campaigns, tighter controls on campaign spending, restrictions on promoting candidates in other races and a shorter campaign period of 10 days instead of 15.
"Last year was a really crisis prone election," said EPAC head Dave Hankins '05, who cited fairness and transparency as the group's top goals in amending its rules.
EPAC faced major problems when a student allegedly hijacked and sent mass BlitzMail messages from the BlitzMail account of a friend of now-Student Body President Julia Hildreth '05.
The matter had to be resolved by administrators, who had given EPAC full control of student elections three years earlier.
While the 20-recipient cap on BlitzMail campaign messages was done away with, new rules restrict BlitzMail campaigning to personal acquaintances and organizational BlitzMail lists.
Another new rule disallowing recipient list suppression was also addressed.
"We're saying no mass blitzing, therefore you shouldn't need to repress the recipient list," Hildreth said.
