Dear Editor:

In John Ferranini’s 9/16/14 article regarding the results of the recent fall special election, I was dismayed to read the comments of Senator Cameron Weaver.  I have only seen Senator Weaver once, at the candidate forum last spring.  He did not attend our first Student Senate meeting this fall on Thursday, September 11.

Senator Weaver’s comment was that he did not vote in the special election as a protest to the invalidation of Mr. Riley’s election as Student Senate President last spring.

Had Mr. Weaver voted, he would have presumably voted for Mr. Riley, which would have made it a tie vote, 77 to 77.

One interpretation I have heard is that in that case, Interim President Fisher or I, as either Interim Vice President or as Director of Finance, would have been called upon to break the tie vote:

From the ASBARC Student Senate Bylaws: p. 10 “Act XIV. Election by Plurality Vote and Tie Vote 1. Candidates shall be elected by a plurality vote. 2. If a general election results in a tie, the incumbent President, or executive officer next in succession of the respective board of the Associated Student Body, shall appoint one of the candidates running in the general election.”

I would like to thank Senator Weaver for relieving one of us of this pressure, but I still feel that it is unfortunate that, especially as an elected official, he did not exercise his voting franchise.

I hope he attends our Student Senate meeting this week on Thursday, September 25, so that we can work together in our elected positions.

I also do not believe that anyone is ASBARC Student Senate has heard business major Michael Cook’s concerns.  We can neither ignore them nor address them unless we hear them. I invite him to come to a Student Senate meeting, which are on Thursdays 10:30-noon in the Board Room in the Student Center. or he could communicate with any of us by using our senate email address, which is most always first initial, last name dot [email protected], so mine would be [email protected].  We cannot always act on all concerns as we have many roadblocks, but at least we can listen.  I am interested to hear Mr. Cook’s concerns.

Sincerely,

Laurie V. Jones

Director of  Finance