IUSA: New code will reduce corruption

IU Student Association President Alex Shortle said the 2006 elections are the most important elections IUSA will have. \n"There have to be strong elections with strong student turn-out with the issues affecting this campus now," he said.\nAmong those issues is whether students will have the same direct connection to the IU governance as they have now, which Shortle said is the "biggest issue students have faced in 30 years."\n"This is the most important thing we're going to be doing as a student government," he said. "The whole University is changing."\nAnd elections were exactly what the members of the IUSA congress spent 45 minutes arguing about.\nIUSA Elections Coordinator Keith Johnson presented Resolution 06-01-25, the Resolution to Amend the Elections Code, to the congress.\nJohnson's proposed changes to the elections code included changing the timeline for the initial elections call-out meeting, removing the run-off provision and reducing each party's spending limits by $170. The amendment was passed.\nShortle, who sponsored the resolution, said he couldn't understand why the members of congress would not want to pass this resolution.\n"It cleans up every issue which has been fought over which has weakened IUSA," he said.\nOriginally the elections code stated that the call-out meeting needed to be held in the first two weeks of the spring semester. The election code resolution proposed extending that period to the first month of the spring semester. Because the call-out meeting had not yet been held, the newly appointed congress' Speaker of the House Terry Record proposed a motion to make the resolution effective July 1.\nThis motion passed.\nThen congress member Jordan Loeb proposed making the entire resolution effective immediately -- rather than over the summer -- excluding the changes of Section 201 which addressed the time period required for holding the call-out meeting. The section of code governing the timing of the call-out meeting remain unchanged. \nCongress voted to strike the amendment to Section 201 and pass the rest of the resolution, effective immediately.\nMembers of congress said they believed changes to the code were positive, reducing the corruption from the IUSA election process. They then passed the resolution.\nThe biggest problem members of congress said they saw was with the delay in the call-out meeting.\nOther topics covered at Tuesday's meeting included the Hoosiers for Higher Education student visit Feb. 21 and the "Circle of Life" collegiate mini-marathon.\nThe elections call-out meeting is now scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 30 in the Hoosier Room of the Indiana Memorial Union.