By Kelline Linton, Chief Copy Editor
An inexperienced appointee and “fluff” legislation did not stop the Students’ Association Congress from approving the co-chair for the Elections Committee and passing one resolution.
Congress approved Blake Penfield, senior political science major from San Antonio, as the elections co-chair with a unanimous voice vote.
As co-chair for this year’s Executive Officer Elections, Penfield will work with fellow co-chair Sarah Pulis, vice president of SA Congress, in running the elections. Both will oversee the voting process and enforce the election rules and procedures.
Pulis asked Penfield to fill the co-chair role, although he had no previous experience on the SA Congress.
“Blake was my first choice because I had been impressed with his comments in my political science classes,” she said. “[While studying abroad in Oxford together], I noticed Blake had the opposite opinion and would approach things from a different angle than I would.”
Penfield said he has worked with the Elections Committee since his freshman year, but not in a leadership capacity.
“I mainly manned the booths,” he said. “In my role of the previous elections, I didn’t get to see behind the curtain too much.”
Although he said he never had an interest in being a Congress member, he wanted to fill the co-chair role because it intrigued him and sounded like something he would want to do.
“It’s a way to educate myself about the process and serve my peers,” Penfield said. “I’m excited to be a part of SA, even though I’m not a part of SA. I’m excited to be a part of the process.”
Penfield said his first interest, as elections co-chair, was not to take away the students’ voices by docking votes for elections violations.
“I don’t think the students’ right to vote should be sacrificed if a particular candidate breaks the rules,” he said.
Instead, Penfield said he would consider fining candidates for serious infractions, especially if they occur several days before the elections.
“I would say be a little harsher on people breaking campaigning rules right before elections,” he said.
Penfield also said he approved the use of gimmicks and electronic publicizing, like Facebook, in campaigns.
“We can make all the rules we want and encourage people to follow them,” he said. “But something as big as cyberspace would be hard to enforce.”
Congress ended the meeting by considering a resolution that formally would endorse the new ad kiosk, which Physical Resources will begin building in the upcoming weeks.
Gardner Hall Rep. Julianne Hart, author of the resolution, said the bill was mainly a public relations statement by Congress. While members questioned the merits of the bill, Hart and other members of Congress debated on whether or not the bill was “fluff” legislation.
Sophomore Sen. Tony Godfrey argued for the necessity of the resolution.
“We need a kiosk,” he said. “We need to keep this on the administration’s minds, so it’s not put on the back burner.”
Congress passed the kiosk resolution 35-1-1.
The next SA Congress meeting is Wednesday at 5:10 p.m. in Hart Auditorium.
