Election Change Endorsed By UC

The Undergraduate Council’s Election Reform Task Force presented a comprehensive report endorsing 11 specific recommendations at last night’s general meeting to address weaknesses revealed by November’s highly controversial elections.

The task force—which presented the report—proposed preliminary suggestions concerning the Election Commission’s operations and the use of technology throughout the elections process, according to Rules Committee Chair and Task Force Chair Luis A. Martinez ’12.

The report recommended that the Election Commission, a non-partisan body of students that oversees and regulates the elections process, will be reduced from seven members to five in order to minimize coordination costs, said Student Relations Committee Chair Ashley M. Fabrizio ’11.

Students on the Election Commission would also receive a stipend in order to attract a more diverse group of applicants to the Commission, said UC Vice President Eric N. Hysen ’11. In addition, current UC members or candidates running in the elections will not be allowed to serve on the Commission—a eligibility requirement that would be formalized for the first time.

Voting software would be adjusted to incorporate a “keys” system that requires simultaneous password input from five of eight “trustees” in order to access election results. These “trustees” would consist of some combination of deans, EC commissioners, and the current UC president, the report stated.

Fabrizio added that the UC has worked with the Office of Student Life and Faculty of Arts and Sciences IT Services to replace the current election system with Helios software, a system that Princeton’s undergraduate student government has implemented with favorable results. Helios has a much simpler interface and is compatible with the “keys” system, Hysen said.

“There is still going to be more discussion here, and these are only preliminary ideas from one body,” Martinez said, noting that the report will provide the framework for actual legislation to be passed by the entire UC within the next couple weeks.

In addition to the presentation of election reform, the Council passed legislation to formalize the launch of Crimson Forum, a Web site that encourages undergraduates to discuss a wide variety of academic and campus-related issues. The site’s content will be similar to discussions held over House lists but will instead be consolidated in one spot, according to project manager and Student Initiatives Committee member Tengbo Li ’12.

The site will be implemented as a project of Legata, an independent, student-run company that currently hosts Crimsonlist, Harvard’s version of the online classifieds Web site Craigslist.

Hysen said the UC will be a “non-paying client” that focuses on generating publicity as well as providing 40 student moderators to ensure accurate information and appropriate language on the site. Legata will primarily deal with the technological aspect of the forum.

The UC originally sought to launch its own version of the advising siteunder the name Crimson Commons before realizing that Legata was simultaneously building a similar model of its own.

“It just didn’t make sense to have two,” Li said. “The bottom line is to serve the student body and this partnership will be the best way.”

—Staff writer Janie M. Tankard can be reached at jtankard@fas.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following clarifications:

CLARIFICATIONS: March 8, 2010

Due to an editing error, the print version of the Mar. 8 news article "Election Change Endorsed By UC" featured a jump headline that read "UC Makes Changes to Election Commission." To clarify, the Undergraduate Council's Election Reform Task Force presented a report endorsing 11 specific recommendations that are only preliminary at this stage and have yet to be given final approval.

In addition, due to an editing error, the print version of the article included a glance box that listed the "launch of Crimsonforum" as part of the election process changes endorsed by the UC. To clarify, at the same meeting, the Council passed legislation to formalize the launch of Crimson Forum, but the agenda item was unrelated to the election process changes.