 "Photo: N/A")
Due to a misinterpretation of the laws on eligibility, the candidate that won the first election, Chris Kruis, will not be ASGRCC President next year.
Kruis, who won by a margin of 216 votes (Kruis: 652, Olivas: 436), did not meet the 3.0 GPA requirement that was needed to become president, but because of a mix-up with the rules he entered the race anyway. The confusion was caused by an outdated elections packet, according to Dani Chang, director of student life.
The election packet used in the election still contained rules from the 2008-2009 academic year, even though the rules had been updated this year. The outdated election packet was interpreted by staff and ASGRCC senators as saying that a 3.0 was not required until the start of the term, but the By-Laws said something different:
Election packet: “To petition for office and be elected, candidates must carry a cumulative grade point average of 3.0, be enrolled in and complete at least 12 credits per quarter, and have accumulated at least 45 college credits by the end of Spring Quarter after the elections are held, or have completed one year of IESL instruction from any accredited institution, as per Enrollment Services standards, prior to the start of Summer Quarter. Any questions on IESL equivalency can be answered by referencing the IESL Equivalency Document, available in Student Programs"
By-Laws: “Candidates for the elected offices of ASGRCC President and Vice President must currently have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 upon applying for the position.” (In 2008-2009 they said “…must currently have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 and maintain it while in office.”)
Since the Presidential elections have been declared invalid and there is currently no one to take the president’s spot next year, special elections will be held on June 1 and June 2. The only student allowed to run will be Joaquin Olivas, who lost the first election.
“We figured if anyone wanted to be President they would have signed up the first time,” explains Chang. Since there is only one person running, the only options students will have are ‘yes’ or ‘no’, with Olivas needing a majority of yes votes to be elected.
If Olivas gets more no than yes votes, the person who was elected vice-president, Young Sunny Park, will be granted president and she will have to appoint her desired vice-president with consent of two thirds of senate.
With an extremely low level of involvement and interest from the student body and the short notice the special elections were organized on, the student life office has arranged for the library and tech center computers to change their landing pages to the voting page, which will hopefully increase the amounts of votes cast. Voting this election will be done online, whereas it was in the last election (often with a cookie as a reward).
The election’s results will be announced at noon on June 3 during a Senate meeting, which will take place in the Rainier room (second floor Lindbloom Student Center).
Be the first to comment on this article!