Student Government Re-Elections Slated for This Week

By: Jana MakkiAn election season is sweeping through the City College of New York. Or in this case, it is happening all over again. The undergraduate candidates campaigned this week as an appeal to student voters. Mark the dates on your calendars because voting opens on September 27 and ends on September 28.Contenders started their campaign on September 19. During this time, students learned about the candidates running for each position. As many voters recall, CCNY held an election last semester that misinterpreted protocol. Interim President Vincent Boudreau’s decision for a re-election rooted from the many accusations of fraud and violations of university bylaws.Boudreau informed the City College students of the nullification on May 19. After reflecting on his verdict, he states, “I don’t regret the decision I made, so I am not second guessing myself on that decision. It was the right decision.”On the expected improvements, Boudreau continues, “[There was] all kinds of opportunities for the impression of impropriety or the actual commission of impropriety. What we want to do is go to a system where there’s much tighter election monitoring.”Like last election, two slates are competing for the victory. “Students Run City” will be vying for their seats against the “Independents of CCNY.” The Student Elections Review Committee only permitted previous candidates to run. This semester’s qualifications prohibited other students from participating.Before voting takes place, the candidates encouraged voters to research each slate’s platform. Both parties have social media accounts that they have updated since the spring election.Boudreau stresses the importance of having “a student government that is able to play a role and think in all of those different spheres of activity is really important.” A separation has existed between students and the Undergraduate Student Government. This results from a lack of transparency in decision-making. As a commuter school, students find difficulty to become involved. Boudreau discusses the social aspects of this campus that lack anywhere else.“[Movements are] a lesson for City College as well; you join the big community as part of the smaller community, but you think about how you connect those smaller communities together,” Boudreau shares. “We have our desire to connect with one another socially, academically, politically, faces some barriers at City College and barriers of being a commuter campus, which means we have to do better architecturally, but we also be explicit with how we do it.”The voting period ends at 7:00PM on Thursday, September 28. The SERC has designated the Graduate Computer Lab in NAC 1/207 as the sole polling place for voting. Since the election is not online, slates must find a new way to bribe students to vote without pizza.