For the second time in two years, a referendum that would allow students without prior experience on Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) to run for the office of BSG president failed.
Although a slim majority of voters supported the constitutional amendment, according to results released by BSG yesterday, the referendum did not receive the two-thirds support required to amend the constitution. Only 142 voters favored the changing eligibility requirements, while 134 students opposed amending the constitution.
The first effort to change the prior experience requirement for BSG president was launched last spring by Ian Yaffe '09. Yaffe gathered enough signatures from the student body to petition for a referendum to change the eligibility requirements. While the majority of voters backed Yaffe, the referendum failed because it did not get the required 30 percent student turnout to be valid. Only 458 students out the required 547 voted during this referendum.
The presidential eligibility question resurfaced this spring with the release of a report by the Election Reform Commission (ECR), which recommended that the prior experience requirement be removed to increase the candidate pool for the office. Despite disagreeing with the ECR's recommendation at BSG's March 26 meeting, the body decided to allow students to decide for themselves.
BSG Vice President of Academic Affairs Sam Dinning '09, who was in favor of maintaining the current eligibility requirements, said he "was not particularly surprised by the results."
"The feedback we've been getting for the past year has been largely mixed, with many feeling experience was crucial while many others felt it was less important. The results of the referendum reflect everything we've been hearing very accurately," Dinning said. "There is a possibility that this issue will re-emerge, but the referendum process last year and the most recent voting demonstrate fairly clearly that the student body does not feel that the current standards are worth changing."
BSG President Dustin Brooks '08, who ran uncontested for the position last year, said he was not surprised by the outcome of the vote.
Although both referenda to expand presidential eligibility have failed, Brooks said it is possible that the eligibility question will resurface in the future.
"It might come up in five or 10 years, since BSG will have cycled through another group of students."
The remaining amendments up for vote, which related to the functioning and organization of the BSG, easily passed. According to Dinning, these other amendments were "changes that we [the BSG] felt would help BSG function more effectively." Most of these amendments related to the functioning and organization of the BSG.
The proposed amendments ranged from moving back the date of first-year Class Office elections from September to mid-October to allowing half-year terms for some Class Officer positions for the junior class.
Only 278 students voted in the polls, which were open from Tuesday, April 8 to Wednesday, April 11.