The Bowdoin Orient

Bowdoin Student Government (BSG) discussed two proposals to amend the bylaws of the election rules at its Wednesday meeting.

One of the proposals regarded the petition process of obtaining signatures from constituents.

Due to the problems that arose in the junior/senior election cycle at the beginning of this academic year, members of BSG proposed that "slight changes need to be made to the election rules."

Vice President Anirudh Sreekrishnan '12 cited a past candidate, who collected signatures through a friend, as one of the reasons for amending the bylaws.

"[We] just want to reduce the ambiguity when it comes to certain issues so that we don't have to face those same issues in later years," said Sreekrishnan.

The proposal asks for the wording to be changed from "must secure [signatures]" to "must personally obtain fifty signatures from their respective constituency" for all candidates, including class council, BSG officers and elected at-large representatives.

"These changes are not meant to increase the complexity of the policies, but to clarify the current set of rules," states the proposal.

The second proposal regards the use of resources in a candidate's campaign.

The current rule prohibits candidates from using College funds or resources for campaign purposes; however, this does not include the use of College-funded media outlets.

The proposal specifies that the resources for campaign purposes include, but are not limited to, College printers and the Student Digest. Additionally, media outlets such as BCN, WBOR and the Orient can be used by the candidate at his or her own expense.

Isaac Ardis '11 opposed the change, the "reason being that Digest and printers are powerful outlets, and important outlets on campus."

"Copy printers on campus have always been prohibited because of sustainability," said President Mike Dooley '10 in response to Ardis.

"If College Houses, campus clubs, academic departments, and any number of other campus interests can vie for our attention on the Digest, then so too should campus candidates have that opportunity," Dooley wrote in an e-mail to the Orient.

Ardis also opposed the idea of buying ads in various medias.

"This means that the more money you have, the more options you have to buy campaign resources," he said. "The digest engine is, on the other hand, a more egalitarian advertising medium."

Branden Asemah '12, however, argued that there aren't many opportunities to promote, and therefore things like the Digest and class lists are over-used already. This lack of options leads to spamming and clogging the Digest.

Jack Hilzinger '12 proposed the idea of limiting the number of posts per candidate, while Ardis said, "I know how to stop spammers in their tracks: don't vote for them."

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