A bill to establish guidelines for candidate filing in elections was passed Tuesday night in the House of Student Representatives.
According to the bill, candidates could campaign and run for up to two House positions during elections.
Lizzy Caudill, the Elections and Regulations Committee Chair and bill co-author, said that the Student Body Code can be loosely interpreted and loopholes were left open for students to run for multiple constituencies. For example, a candidate could run as a representative of the junior class as well as the honors college. The new guidelines would strengthen the Student Body Code and establish a new standard for elections, she said.
Caudill said that students running for multiple constituency positions would be appointed to the position they win with the most percentage votes. Students do not get to choose which position they want to represent if they win multiple positions, she said.
The House entered a lengthy debate regarding students having the ability to run for two or three constituency positions.
Jansen Harrison, a representative for the AddRan College of Liberal Arts, said he liked the idea of three options at first, but believed two to be more suitable. Just because a student cannot run for three positions does not mean they would not represent their class, he said.
Kari Berdelle, a representative for the College of Communication, believed that students who work hard to be double majors and in the Honors College deserve the right to run for three positions. Berdelle said that students should not be hindered because they are affiliated with multiple constituencies.
Brittany Henderson, a representative for the College of Fine Arts, said that two is a fair number because each student has one or two constituencies that are more important than the others. She believed that life is about choices and each student has multiple options to choose from.
Brian McDermott, a representative for the AddRan College of Liberal Arts, said by limiting the number to two, the election would be more competitive and the best student for the position would fight for it.
The bill passed with a majority vote.
A resolution to support addition of student phone numbers to the iTCU app passed after supporters highlighted the efficiency of the addition.
Kyle Cochran, author of the resolution and sophomore business major, believed that adding cell phone numbers to the directory, that already includes student e-mail addresses, created convenience for students on-campus. “What better place to access cell phone numbers than on your cell phone?” Cochran said.
Cochran added that FrogCalls on my.tcu.edu already lists student numbers, but including numbers in the app would allow students to find numbers faster and more efficiently. He said that a security measure would require a TCU username and password to access numbers,
Dalton Goodier, student relations chair and a representative for the AddRAn College of Liberal Arts, said that students not comfortable with their numbers in the database do not have to submit their numbers.
The resolution passed with a majority vote.
In other news, Caudill said that voting for the new position of Vice President of External Affairs will continue until noon Wednesday. In case of a run-off, voting will begin Thursday 8 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m. the same day.
