The Student Government Association Senate passed legislation to amend its Election Code to ban University party labels and a bill to establish the United States Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environment Design as a baseline for any new or replacement facilities on campus.
The election amendment demands that "all references to party affiliations be eliminated from the election code" and for "party labels and identifiers (to be) excluded from the ballot."
"If we refuse to admit or refuse to believe that we are in a state of crisis for our tiny democracy in terms of people simply not wanting to contest incumbents or simply not being interested in running for office, (then) we must concede that we are nearing the point where the overwhelming majority of our constituents for one reason or another believes the seats we hold tonight are unattainable," SGA Senate President David Rosen, who authored the amendment, said.
Rosen said that in 2004, he was opposed to abolishing the party labels, but now he believes it’s the right thing to do because SGA Senate elections are no longer contested.
He said that in 2005, 19 of the 33 races were unchallenged with one At-Large position uncontested. In 2006, six out of seven At-Large positions were unopposed and 22 out of 27 people of that SGA administration were elected without opposition. In 2007, five out of seven At-Large positions were unopposed, including all three executive positions, and 25 out of 32 people were elected without opposition.
Rosen said that the SGA Senate election this spring will be supportive of any opposing student candidates interested in attaining a position.
"We must do more to make sure we’re making our elections as friendly to the opposition as possible," he said.
Rosen said that because of his party’s "near monopoly" he is the first person to be elected SGA Senator, Vice-President and President unopposed and that it should never be that easy. He also said that just because there wouldn’t be any party labels didn’t mean people couldn’t meet to discuss issues.
"People can still caucus, people can still meet," he said. "There will always be factions; that’s part of democracy. It just won’t be on the ballot."
Out of 13 Senators present who voted, only Business Sen. Salman Amanullah voted against the amendment.
The LEED bill, authored by Sen. Timothy O’Brien, calls for UH to "take the necessary steps to utilize the United States’ Green Building Council’s LEED certification for all new and replacement buildings." The bill was passed unanimously.
The United States Green Building Council, a nonprofit organization, started the LEED program in 1995 to help create energy efficient buildings that are made of recycled materials and avoid any materials that are identified as being "toxic" to inhabitants or the environment.
"This is a common sense measure," Rosen said on supporting the LEED bill. "It’s going to help lead our school into a more energy conscious future."
SGA Vice President Sam Dike said he thinks the LEED bill is a very important direction UH needs to go in.
"We all know that we’re in a little bit of an energy crisis, even if we don’t want to admit it. We need to start conserving our energy and saving our planet," Dike said.
At the meeting, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Sen. #4 Aleah Al-Sad was appointed to At-Large Sen. #2. Political science and theatre junior John Phillips was also appointed to CLASS seat #4.
Senators Brandon Brewton, Shameria Davis, Jason Cisneroz, Varun Ambrose and Mujan Noroozian did not attend the meeting.
