In an emergency meeting of the Student Assembly, representatives unanimously agreed to let students choose Matthew Allwood’s successor in the position of vice president for finance.
The position became vacant Monday when former Vice President for Finance Allwood officially stepped down. Jared Kirschenbaum, Student Association executive vice president and president-elect, has taken on the duties of vice president for finance until the election can occur.
The Assembly voted unanimously to pass a resolution that reaffirmed the constitutional requirement to hold elections for Allwood’s replacement.
Daniel Rabinowitz, the SA vice president for academic affairs, was the author of the resolution. The SA Constitution already requires a general student vote to fill the position, but Rabinowitz put forth the resolution to emphasize the need to have speedy elections.
“We have had a lot of complaints from student groups that we’ve had an issue with the office,” he said.
Rabinowitz thinks that Kirschenbaum is overburdened, since he is already executive vice president and is also training to fill the presidency next year.
Elections, Rabinowitz said, “would be the fastest and most efficient” way to get someone in the office. “Students deserve to vote on who their [finance vice president] is.”
But in some ways, students have already expressed their opinion. In last week’s elections, students voted for Adam Shamah as next year’s finance vice president. Shamah is planning to run again to fill the position for the remainder of the semester.
“I’d like to get started right away,” he said. “I don’t want to wait until next year.”
Karen Galan, chair of the SA Elections Committee, said she would want to change the Constitution to allow students to fill E-Board vacancies if they have already been elected.
Still, she understood that the current Constitution requires an election, and that the results in the special election could differ from the general election results.
“We can’t leave it up to chance,” she said. She said that an election is the best way to fill the position according to the current Constitution.
Parts of the election timetable have already been approved. The letter of intent period opens today at 9 a.m. and closes Monday at 5 p.m.
Galan hopes to hold the elections Thursday so a finance vice president can be chosen before spring break. The election date is pending approval of the Assembly.
Elahd Bar-Shai, the chair of the Assembly, understands the need for democratic approval. He said, however, that another election would be a drain on time, money and human capital.
“It’s incredibly inconvenient,” he said. “It will use up Student Association resources.”
He said the SA had enough trouble finding the students to run elections for last week’s main elections, so finding enough people for a smaller election may be even more difficult.
Still, he acknowledged that the SA must act in accordance with the Constitution.
“We have to abide by the Constitution,” he said. “So that’s what we’re going to do.”
The Constitution requires the election to be held within 15 class days of any executive board vacancy.
In the meantime, Kirschenbaum is overseeing the office of the finance vice president. He emphasized the importance of keeping the office in motion.
“These vouchers need to get signed,” he said. “We’re not going to let politics get in the way.”