Anna Bryson | The Crow’s Nest
My name is Chase Cooley, and I served as a senator in Student Government last year. It was both an interesting and questionable experience, and there are plenty of things I could say about it.
History Major
Recently, it was announced that there are upcoming elections for the new unified Student Government that covers all three campuses. I have some concerns and grievances that may be worth note to any potential voter.
It’s no secret that Student Government is a less-than-reputable organization with a history of questionable behavior. One of the more recent examples of this was from the most recent midterm election cycle in October.
I ran for re-election against 10 other candidates. Since only 10 seats were open, we had to run campaigns. Because I was struggling with personal matters, I was unable to mount a successful campaign, and therefore was the only candidate to lose.
Now, I can accept that this loss was my fault. However, what I did not accept at the time, was that two of the candidates had actually been accepted after the deadline.
A fellow senator was also aware of this, and we collaborated on attempting to bring this situation to trial, since the acceptance of candidates after the deadline is a violation of statutes. However, our request for a trial was denied, mainly because the chief legal officer determined that since the statute in question does not explicitly state candidates have to be refused, there was no violation.
The CLO also stated that the supervisor of elections who accepted the candidates did so with the “best interest of the student body in mind.”
This, in our opinions, was nonsensical.
What is the point of having a deadline if you refuse to honor it? Is the best interest of the student body one in which the statutes, the sacred document of rules and guidelines, are ignored purely for convenience? I don’t think so. If they refuse to practice what they preach here, what else could they get away with?
As far as I know, the chief legal officer and supervisor of elections are the same people from last time. This means that these elections, by default, could be tainted. Since these are the first elections of the unified Student Government (which, by the way, concentrates large amounts of power in the Tampa campus), they are critical in determining the future of the USF System.
