On Sunday, the Student Association executive board approved the appointment of freshman Robert Terreri to the position of Undergraduate Student Association Elections Committee Chair, a position he will hold for the remainder of the academic year.
After junior Bernard Goehle relinquished the USAEC chair position last Wednesday in order to run for SA Director of Student Programming in the college-wide elections on March 8 – 10, it became necessary for SA to appoint a replacement to fill the position and enforce USAEC rules and regulations during and after the campaigns.
Senior Doug Sinski, the current SA president, said at the SA emergency meeting on Sunday that he believes "Rob is sufficiently removed and has a working knowledge of USAEC," and he appointed Terreri as the only nominee for consideration at the meeting. Senior Will Labate, SA Director of Student Affairs and junior Nicholas Spengler, SA Director of Student Programming, also voiced support of Terreri.
Only one other student submitted an application for the vacated position; that student was not nominated for consideration by Sinski.
During the four days following Goehle's resignation, Terreri said that he effectively began to "unofficially" fulfill the duties of the position so that the process could run smoothly in the interim.
Terreri has served on USAEC throughout the academic year and said he has knowledge of the guidelines and procedures that must be followed in student elections. Terreri had considered running for the chair position next year even before Goehle resigned. "I probably, definitely will still run next year," he said.
"Right now I'm focused on getting through the elections without a hitch," Terreri said. "After that, we'll look at the guidelines and see if we can make them into more ‘common sense' guidelines." USAEC guidelines have been a source of considerable debate within SA after the spring 2009 elections, in which the initial election results were invalidated on purported violations of the rules by candidates.
Terreri is already looking at issues caused by the fact that elections end on the Friday before spring break this year. Usually, candidates have 24 hours to review the results of the election so that they may file an appeal, but this year the period for review may be extended to 24 hours after classes resume following the break. Terreri is currently working with the SA executive board to parcel out the details of this issue.