For the first time in nearly six weeks the Student Government Elections Office has shown signs of life. With the University-Wide Council (UWC) approving Poojitha Somereddy as the new elections supervisor on Friday, March 4, Somereddy now has 19 days to pull together the elections.
“We have time to organize it in the traditional way. We are not going to have any drastic changes. It’s the same way it was all these years,” said Somereddy. The next step for Somereddy to be officially approved according to the SG statutes is to be approved by the campus student senates. She did have a meeting Monday with the Broward and Macarthur senates, Tuesday with the Treasure Coast senate and Thursday with the Boca Senate. The MacArthur Student Senate Speaker Heather Boyer has been one of the biggest critics of the election process. But even Boyer believes that miracles can happen. “I’m optimistic. We’re going to try our best.”
Mike D’Eugenio, who is running for President, feels that the election can be set up in this short amount of time, but doesn’t feel like it will be fair. “Can it be done? Yes. Will it be effective? No! It’s going to hurt the campaigns. There’s not enough time to campaign.” If D’Eugenio or any other students have a problem with the way the election process is going, they can petition the student court to fix the problem.
At deadline, there still is no active student court. But on Tuesday, Treasure Coast was supposed to appoint an Associate Justice, completing the requirement to have a student court, according to Leynov.
Leynov said that students wouldn’t have to wait 15 academic days anymore for a case to be heard by the UWC, the body that acts as a court when there isn’t one. Now that a student court will be assembled, a wait of only a week may benefit students to help expedite solutions to petitions and grievances.
“There are no petitions in the court,” said Leynov, which means that even the candidates that are running in the election have no legal standing with the student court about the elections. “I’m working on it,” said D’Eugenio.
One thing that Somereddy has to begin working on is setting up an election commission, which is a group of students that represent all the campuses, to hear any election violations and help with general election procedure. She will also have to set up an election timeline, which will outline the dates of debates, filing for candidacy, and other important election information. That timeline has to be approved by the UWC before the election can continue.
Somereddy is also taking this job very seriously. “I know I have to be very balanced. I am trying to be on my own. It’s the requirement of my job. She [Student Body President Alvira Khan] is not helping me. I’m not relying on her.” Khan, who is giving mixed signals about whether she is running or not, still has not made any official announcements if she is running.
Somereddy, who has only spent eight months in the United States, and two semesters at FAU, is still trying to get acquainted with the election statutes herself. I’m trying to get acquainted with the statutes and everything. I’m going through the documents that the previous liaisons left.”
Over the next few weeks, the University Press will cover the SG elections as close as possible. Check our website at www.fau.edu/uponline for updates on where the election stands as soon as they become available
