Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

SGA’s major void finally filled

The Student Government Association (SGA) elections for senate seats were ratified last night at a coordinating council meeting. The ratification brings an end to a very long and confusing six months of procedures and overturned elections that prevented the SGA from having a fully functional senate this far into the 2000-2001 academic year.

‘I’m looking forward to a great semester,’ said Speaker of the Senate Jim Eltringham last night, when he led an overwhelmingly relaxed atmosphere of three recently elected senators in a meeting that barely made quorum.

The motion to ratify the elections was the only agenda on the coordinating council’s meeting, and it was passed unanimously. Only 6.5 percent of students from University of Massachusetts voted in the elections, but since it broke the bare minimum of 5 percent, there were no problems with the small amount.

Last semester’s major problems with the Senate elections were with the commuter seats, and what the SGA called, the University’s vague description of the difference between on and off campus housing. SGA tension was heightened by an argument about an abundance of senators with Greek influence capturing seats.

The new elections saw junior Social Thought and Political Economics major Meir Hamilton earning the most votes for the commuter seats. Of the remaining twenty-eight winners, Andrew Spagnoli, Max Miller and Steve Gill followed Hamilton in order.

Gill, who was in attendance at last night’s meeting commented on this semester’s elections, as opposed to the last.

‘I’m very happy with these elections,’ he said. ‘I had problems with a single group taking over the senate, but now we have a nice core of people to start with.’

Aaron Saunders, a commuter Senator who did not run for a seat last semester said, ‘The only thing I can think about [in comparison of the two Senate elections] is the 1994 baseball strike. After they went on strike, they came back, they played the best baseball I’ve ever seen.’

The strike Saunders referred to was the 1994 Major League Baseball (MLB) players’ strike that lasted from Aug. 12 to March 26, 1995. The strike inhibited the World Series, baseball’s championships, for the first time in 89 years.

Eltringham had difficulty making a comparison between the two elections, but said, ‘I think a lot of the senators who came back after last semester are in for the long haul. Those are the optimistic people we want in the SGA.’

Eltringham also brought up the Senators who did not run for re-election.

‘We had about thirty or so people who were pushed out, and some of the projects they were working on were really good,’ he said. ‘I hope [those projects] get picked up again.’

It is now up to the Senate to establish a Ways and Means committee to aid in funding and money distribution. Senator Mike Taugher, said he has been extremely active in the Ways and Means department of the senate while all of the election confusing was taking place, and will remain to be that active in the future.

‘I’ve been putting in a whole lot of work and it’ll only get worse,’ he said. ‘We’re hoping that all of the re-elected senators who were on [Ways and Means] before will come back. That’s only like five or six people though.’

Everyone present at the meeting expressed a slight concern for the amount of time the Senate has left in the semester.

‘It is too bad we don’t have much time,’ said Gill.

Also during the meeting, Saunders took time to note a job well done by Chancellor of Elections, Sam Blasiak.

‘I think Sam did an excellent job with everything,’ Saunders said.

Besides the elections for senate, three referendum questions were placed on the ballot. The first read, ‘Would you like an establishment such as McDonalds, Wendy’s or Burger King in the campus center?’ The second read, ‘Would you like to be able to purchase the UMass Index Yearbook through a positive check box on your fall semester tuition bill?’ The third question read, ‘Should we have a bar on campus?’ All three questions were answered in an affirmative manner by at least 60 percent of voters.

There will also be a meeting this Wednesday regarding the new Senate Ways and Means committee.

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