Aboard the controversy surrounding the ASGRCC elections, we find a popular candidate, Chris Kruis, who, after the first election was over, was found ineligible due to a mix-up of election packets and an unfortunate GPA. Now, with Kruis out of the way, Joaquin Olivas, the runner-up (216 votes behind in the first election), is the only candidate running, completely unopposed. All hail, Second Place for President! Maybe…?
According to Dani Chang, the director of Student Life (see "ASGRCC declares presidential election invalid" at thecurrentonline.net), in order to become president, Olivas needs to have more Yes than No votes. If Olivas gets a majority of No's, then he will not be president and someone will be appointed to the position. That person would be Young Sunny Park, the elected Vice President; and she would pick the new Vice President with permission of 2/3 of the Senate.
Does this seem somewhat ridiculous?
Well, yes. Of all the clubs and special benefits on campus – being a member of CLEO (Community Leadership, Education & Outreach program), being an officer of a club, getting scholarships, and so forth – which all only require a minimum of a 2.0, in order to be a member of ASGRCC one must have a GPA of at least 3.0.
Because of this restriction, it limits the number of students who can run for ASGRCC president. There aren't many students who are politically active, let alone within the college, and to bar them from participating seems rather skewed.
A better idea, rather than setting a GPA standard for those who want to run in this mock of a democratic election, is to have people submit and publicize their GPA (and a more elaborate bio, perhaps) so as to give the student body more choices for what they want. Do they want person A with a GPA of 2.9, who is oddly proactive, socially charming, and tenable, or person B with a 3.0, only a 0.1 difference, who seems rather uninvolved and unqualified for this particular position?
In any event, the student body deserves more options. In order to offer them, there needs to be fewer restrictions on the so-called "democratic" elections, and more information on the people running.
We understand the difficult unprecedented situation Student Government is in, but there were solutions in which someone actually elected by a popular vote would be the most important person in ASGRCC.
The requirements for President could have been amended to a lower GPA after the outcome was made public and Kruis had won with more than decisive numbers. This would have certainly not been ideal, but the current situation isn't either, because this vote will most likely result in Olivas winning despite having a minority mandate in the actual elections.
Another solution, in our opinion the best one, would be to leave the rules intact and have someone with a majority mandate, Young Sunny Park, as President next year. The ASGRCC Constitution says "The Vice President of the ASGRCC shall become President in case the Office of President is vacated." This did not apply in this case because the winners hadn't been sworn in yet, so the Office of President hadn't been officially vacated. Had Student Government not held a special election and proceeded as usual, with only a Vice President being sworn in, she would've automatically become President.
It is, however, too late for such changes to be made - by the time this paper is printed the positions will already be filled and the people sworn in, so all we can do now is hope Student Government will make the changes necessary to prevent any further ambiguity, especially on important matters like this.
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