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The General Student Senate passed a resolution Tuesday to create an ad hoc committee to examine the Fair Elections and Practices Commission guidelines and make recommendations for their revision to GSS.
The ad hoc committee’s creation comes after two elections were run under the auspices of FEPC that some senators say were mishandled by the commission. There is some disagreement about whether this committee will simply review FEPC’s guidelines or look into the commission’s handling of last semester’s Student Government and Interfraternity Council elections.
Sen. Nicholas DeHaas, who wrote the resolution before resigning from senate Wednesday (see GSS sidebar on Page 2), said the committee’s purpose is only to find ways to close loopholes and streamline the fair elections process, but senate parliamentarian Ryan Gavin says the committee will not be able to look into problems without analyzing what went wrong under Landry’s watch.
“[Landry] did not understand the guidelines and didn’t follow them because she didn’t understand them,” Gavin said. “It wasn’t a case that the guidelines were messed up and she did the right thing even though they were wrong. It was that she messed it up.”
Landry said she is glad the committee will be created to look over FEPC guidelines, but that problems with commission are not new. According to Landry, there has been high turnover in her position due to the fact that issues stemming from the guidelines have not been addressed.
“There need to be changes,” Landry said. “I just hope this doesn’t turn into a personal attack against me.”
DeHaas said the way the elections were handled shouldn’t fall on Landry’s shoulders, and that the problems with the elections existed because the current guidelines allowed them to. Student Government President Brian Harris agrees.
“She put in the work,” Harris said of Landry. “I don’t feel like people don’t like Skye or that they think she’s done a bad job.” Harris said the purpose of the committee is only to review and make recommendations regarding FEPC guidelines.
But that isn’t enough for Gavin. “I would hope that Skye Landry, the chair of the FEPC, would not take compensation for those two elections because they did not follow protocol,” he said. “I would also hope the final outcome of the committee would be a recommendation to remove [Landry from] the leadership of the [FEPC].”
Gavin says such decisions would be based on issues of conduct and protocol that will come up in the process of the ad hoc committee’s review.
“This is nothing against Skye as a person, the same way our decision with Abtin [Mehdizadegan] wasn’t against him as a person,” Gavin said, referring to senate’s December decision not to rehire Mehdizadegan as vice president of student entertainment.
The results of the student body presidential election on Nov. 12 were stalled due to questions involving the validity of a small number of ballots in the close election.
Some senators question whether FEPC should have been involved with the IFC elections at all. FEPC guidelines state that elections must take place at least three weeks after nominations are made. IFC had started its election process, including making nominations and setting an election date, before asking FEPC to get involved.
Landry admits there wasn’t enough time to conduct the election under strict interpretations of the guidelines, but that she had to make a decision on whether the FEPC process had to begin from scratch or if the commission could simply pick up where IFC left off. She decided to go ahead on the timetable set by IFC. DeHaas listed the issue of whose rules take precedence in such a situation as one of the questions to be looked at by the committee.
After the election, a complaint was filed against FEPC for leaving ballot boxes unattended during polling hours. FEPC guidelines state that “no ballot box will be left unattended for any reason at any time” or else “the election shall be voided and conducted again as soon as possible.” Senate ultimately upheld the results of the election.
“If the senators believe that rules were broken, they should’ve called for a revote,” Landry said. “I thought there should be a revote, and apparently they disagreed.” Landry also said she asked senate some time in advance to assist with manning the ballot boxes due to scheduling difficulties with the four other members of FEPC, and that no senator showed up to assist with the election.
“Skye said she couldn’t get enough senators to fill the hours at the ballot box,” Goodman said. “But it’s not the job of the senate to be poll-watchers. … If the boxes were unattended at any point, it should’ve been the FEPC chair at the ballot box. At the end of the day it falls on her shoulders.”
The committee will be comprised of seven members: four senators, one appointee of the FEPC chair, one appointee of Vice President Nyssa Gatcombe and one senate appointee from the undergraduate population. The committee members may be chosen as early as next week.
A representative from IFC was unavailable for comment.
