The CCE Student Government Association (SGA) held an executive board meeting on March 26 to discuss their recent elections, which was the first time CCE students could vote for their SGA officers online. The elections were originally scheduled for March 12-18, but the process

encountered difficulties, so the voting

was postponed until March 14 and ended on March 20. The main order of business at the SGA meeting was discussing the problems that the election process e

ncountered, and brainstorming ways to avoid these problems in the future.

“We help to work as a liaison between the students and the administration,” said senior Larry Draughn, the CCE SGA’s

current publicity officer. The SGA works alongside the administration to ensure that major decisions on campus are made

with CCE students in mind. Among the major duties of the SGA are organized events for CCE students, such as getting food for the Homecoming cookout, Valentine’s Day Dance, and the CCE

banquet, which will be held on

April 22. They also work in

conjunction with the Strategic Long-Term Planning Committee and the CCE

administrative staff to ensure that adult students have a say in Guilford’s

important daily

decisions.

The CCE SGA typically does not coordinate with Community Senate, the traditional students’ government.

Lakecia Boyd, SGA President, oversaw the elections, and SGA coordinated with Teresa Sanford and IT&S to help with the programming and set-up of electronic voting. The election process raised concerns from many CCE students and members of the SGA, including Felicia Kornegay, who was on the ballot for SGA President.

“There are aspects of the 2006 CCE SGA election that cause major ethical concerns,” Kornegay said. “This election process is counter to Guilford College’s core values of community, diversity, integrity, justice, equality and stewardship.”

The SGA executives do recognize that there is room for improvement of the electronic voting process. “We tested this thing several times,” Boyd said. “There were concerns that arose beyond our control and foresight.”

These concerns included technical difficulties with Internet links, the fact that candidates for the elections could run for multiple offices at once, and insufficient publicity for the elections.

“The SGA began publicity for the elections in January,” Boyd said. “Announcements were placed on the student Buzz, and flyers distributed around campus and placed in Hendricks Hall throughout the spring semester.”

Kornegay said, “It has been observed that the system also allows CCE students to vote more than once. This will skew the voting outcome.”

“One person voted 31 times,” Boyd said. Boyd emphasized that extra votes were discarded for the final tally.

From among the several problems

associated with this year’s elections, the SGA identified a profound lack of publicity as the primary concern many students had with the elections.

“Methods were not open and pervasive among the CCE student body to inform CCE students of dates, times and ways to participate in the CCE SGA election – i.e., submitting names to run for office and/or voting,” Kornegay said.

“Most CCE students do not log into the Buzz,” said senior Leslie Essien, who also works for Guilford with the Initiative on Faith and Practice. “I was amazed at how many CCE students did not know about the elections.”

SGA President-elect Jackie White said, “Many people said ‘we didn’t even know we had an SGA.'”

In the future, the SGA promises to make a greater effort of informing CCE students about the elections. The SGA discussed several potential methods for improving the publicity for the elections, including a postcard mailing to all CCE students, the publication of the candidates’ platforms, and a “meet your candidate” event.

The SGA will change-over its officers after the last board meeting, which has yet to be announced.

Despite the criticism the elections have drawn, the SGA has high hopes for the future. They promise to work on running smooth elections, keeping the entire CCE population informed, and working with IT&S to resolve technical difficulties. “I want to see this SGA process taken to another level,” White said.