IUSA congress seats empty for 2010-11

Many residence halls and some schools were left without official congressional representation for the 2010-11 school year after the recent IU Student Association election.

Briscoe Quad, Collins Center, Forest Quad, McNutt Quad, Wright Quad, Eigenmann Hall, Family Student Housing and the Jacobs School of Music had only write-in candidates. Those candidates had at most two votes and were not certified as elected representatives.

“For those seats, no one was represented in the ballot,” election coordinator and senior Andrew Dahlen said.

In IUSA’s Congress, each residence hall and undergraduate and graduate school is represented by a student.

Vice president-elect of congress and junior Jen Peterson said she hopes to fill the open positions before iUnity’s inauguration on April 15.

Peterson said a majority of those spots will be filled by write-in candidates. She said several of those write-in candidates actually campaigned for election after they did not fill out an official candidacy form in time.

Peterson said residence hall spots are extremely important. They’re also the most difficult to fill.

“I’m working to try to fill definitely those residential seats because those are super important to have a fair congress,” Peterson said.

Because a student must represent the residence hall in which he or she lives, residence hall candidates must be certain of their living situation for the next school year before campaigning. Peterson said this makes it difficult to find students willing to campaign.

A similar rule exists for undergraduate school and graduate school seats. A student must be accepted into the school that he or she represents.

This presents a problem for students who were elected as University Division representatives. Peterson said because most students do not stay in University Division after their sophomore year, so those representatives will have to be transferred to other positions.

Peterson said she hopes to find incoming freshmen at freshman orientation to fill University Division seats that will be left vacant after current representatives are accepted into other schools.

In contrast to the 2010 election, current vice president of congress and senior Shobha Pai said almost every residence hall was represented during the 2009 election. As a result, Pai said she believes almost every seat is filled in the current congress.

“There have been plenty of people going for the same member positions,” Pai said.
However, Pai said some seats were filled by a process of recommendation, interviewing and appointment, rather than election.

Appointed members were initiated into Congress by congressional resolution.
Peterson said she is still seeking individuals interested in representing their residence halls, especially if they are involved as a resident assistant or residence hall committee member. Peterson said these individuals tend to be more in touch with the opinions of an entire residence hall.

“That’s the point of the congress, not for that one person’s opinion, for the opinion of their entire constituency,” Peterson said.