Seth Warner '14 proposes campaign reforms

The Vassar Student Association (VSA) Council will vote in its next meeting, Sunday, April 10, on an amendment to the VSA Bylaws that would extend filing and campaigning periods during VSA elections.

Under the proposed amendment, which applies to Article VI of the VSA Bylaws, the filing period, in which candidates officially announce their candidacy for positions, would be extended from five days to two weeks. The filing period would end seven days before voting began.

The amendment also significantly proposes that campaigning begin at the same time that the filing period opens, so that a student could announce his or her candidacy even after others had begun campaigning. Under the current Bylaws, candidates are prohibited from campaigning until the end of

the filing period, and then may use posters, the Internet or door-to-door campaigning to promote themselves for three to seven days, until 5 p.m. on the first day of voting.

The amendment proposes that during the first week of campaigning and filing, three weeks before voting, candidates would be prohibited from using posters or the Internet as campaigning tools. The amendment states, "Promotional materials may be distributed during the course of direct contact between the candidate (or his/her representative) and the recipient." Flyers or other documents could only reach the student body in this week if distributed by hand. For the final two weeks of campaigning, posters and use of the Internet, including Facebook and other social media, would be permitted.

If the amendment were adopted, candidates would still be required to attend a candidate's meeting after the close of the filing period. If the candidates chose to campaign before that meeting, they would have to present themselves at the VSA office and verify that they had read and understood the article of the Bylaws pertaining to elections.

The amendment was written by Seth Warner '14, who believes the changes can make elections "more fair, more competitive and more substantive," as he said in a Council meeting on Sunday, April 3, when the amendment was presented. In an emailed statement, he elaborated that, "The legislation raises awareness of elections among students and gives us a chance to run before it's too late to file. This will increase much-needed competition in our elections. Meanwhile, minor rules changes de-emphasize impersonal campaigning in favor of more substantive, face-to-face contact."

Warner stressed that the amendment, if enacted, would not greatly disturb the electoral process, saying it would be "great in effect but small in change." He has created a website, www.vsaelections.co.cc, to explain the proposed amendment and to urge students to contact their representatives about it.

One of the goals of the new amendment is to incentivize direct, face-to-face campaigning about issues, as opposed to mass promotion through media. President of Lathrop House Samantha Garcia '13 commented that this was a more meaningful form of campaigning, saying, "People do remember the people who come to their door. People still talk about [VSA President Mat Leonard '11] coming to Lathrop, and that had a huge impact on the vote in my house." Class of 2014 President Michael Moore '14 concurred, stating and referring to the student referendum (See "Voting on revisions to begin today," on page 1), "If in the future we are to work with a more issues-based system, which I hope we will, personal interaction is paramount."

Though the filing period would be extended by over a week and the campaigning period by two weeks, because the periods would overlap, the electoral process would only be extended by one week. Some Council members expressed concern that longer campaigning periods would lessen the enthusiasm around election time: "If someone wants to go door-to-door week one, then it's easy to forget. For some reason Vassar students don't have long-term memory," said VSA Vice President for Student Life Samin Shehab '11. Warner argued that an additional week would not drastically lessen election hype. President of the Terrace Apartments Samantha Allen '11, agreed, saying, "A longer campaign period combined with the filing period raises awareness that campaigning and filing are going on."

VSA Council will vote to include or discard the amendment in a Council meeting on Sunday, April 10. If the amendment is passed by a two-thirds majority, the amendment will go into effect immediately and the upcoming spring elections will have a concurrent filing period and campaigning period. However, in order to ensure elections begin after the April 8 referendum, the filing period will be shortened to one week.

Promised Warner, "These improvements will go a long way toward making VSA elections and the VSA a much stronger and more effective democratic institution."