The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Elections Board (ELBO), the branch of Tufts' student government responsible for running elections, has been experiencing severe structural problems for the past few years. The group has had difficulty attracting and retaining members, a disability that is hampering its ability to run elections.
The board will be reduced to one member in January if no new students join soon, and history has proven that the job is far too much for one person to handle.
While five students are technically required to sit on the board, it is currently made up of only three: senior Bruce Kessler, senior Sandra Fried, and junior Shane Mason. The ELBO term runs one year beginning in December, and because both Kessler and Fried are seniors, only Mason will be able to seek a second term.
The insufficient membership on ELBO is preventing it from holding a "Special Election" to fill an open seat on the Committee on Student Life (CSL).
"We do not think we can hold fair elections at the time," Kessler said. "So we are not going to try."
These structural problems are not new, and have been a recurring nuisance for the past few years. Last fall, the body nearly dissolved when lone member Sarah Molenkamp resigned. Molenkamp had been left to run ELBO by herself after one member graduated and two others resigned.
The board also found itself immersed in controversy last year when a student appeal challenged the legitimacy of its vote count on a constitutional amendment in the spring of 1999. The appeal wreaked havoc on the TCU government, straining relations between the various bodies.
The TCU Senate's appointment process for the board is relatively informal, and as a result, the body has failed to attract much student interest. Additionally, students are turned off by the workload that is imposed on ELBO members, a burden that is especially poignant when the board has fewer members.
ELBO is charged with organizing the elections for the three bodies of the TCU- the Senate, the Judiciary (TCUJ), and the CSL. It holds general elections for these bodies in April, an election for the freshman senators in the fall, and also must sponsor "Special Elections" throughout the year to fill vacated seats on various bodies.
The board is also responsible for advertising available positions, holding candidate meetings, organizing debates for the candidates, advertising the elections on campus, and running the polls on election days.
While ELBO is in the process of recruiting new members, there has been little student interest in the job. No long-term solution to its structural problem has been proposed either, but current discussion on the TCU constitution may provide a conduit for reforming ELBO. A committee headed by Senate parliamentarian Benjamin Lee is working on a review of the TCU constitution with the intention of presenting the student body with a referendum during the general elections in April.
Kessler is confident that the TCU will have found a solution to this impending problem by next January, and speculated that the election for the open CSL seat will take place then. Student CSL Chair Shou Min Tan said that the empty seat is not impairing the functions of the committee, but he would like to see the position filled as soon as possible.
