Author: Lilliane Ballesteros
The 2008 Occidental College Mid-Year ASOC Elections are underway as ASOC plans to fill both GA Co-Chair positions and one Honor Board Juror position by Friday, February 8.
ASOC will need to fill the GA Co-Chair positions for the spring semester after Laura Knuttunen (senior) and Jessica Simes (junior) resigned from their GA Co-Chair positions late last semester. Knuttunen and Simes remained Co-Chairs through the 2007 Fall semester after an ASOC election failed to produce candidates for the positions. The Honor Board Juror position will also need to be filled since Janelle Porter (senior) recently resigned from her position. An Honor Board Juror is expected to serve for two years, although Assistant Director of Student Life Kenna Cottrill stated in a February 22 e-mail to the Oxy community that “juniors and seniors are still welcome to run.”
ASOC Elections Director Daniel Lawler explained the importance of the election in an e-mail response to the Weekly, saying, “Participation in elections has been on a steady upward trend, however the percentage of the student body that votes is still relatively small, around half or less.” According to the ASOC website, 678 students voted in last semester’s Mid-Year ASOC election.
“Although our numbers are similar to other institutes, I believe with the caliber of students at Oxy, in terms of academic talent and socio-political awareness, that our numbers could be way higher,” Lawler said. “It seems many people are concerned with what’s going on but are failing to vote for things that really affect them and our campus. So although elections have been largely a success as of late, it would speak volumes about our constituency if we had a larger percent of students voting.”
Petitions are currently available for students looking to run in the election. Campaigning for the candidates is scheduled to begin Saturday, February 2 and will last until voting ends on Thursday, February 7.
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