Members of the Undergraduate Council of Students expressed concern at the council’s general body meeting Wednesday that the new voting system — Qualtrics — being used for this year’s student government elections could decrease voter turnout.
Students will vote this week through a survey on the online data collection software Qualtrics instead of on the MyCourses website, said Brandon Tomasso ’13, UCS vice president. Tomasso said he sent a campus-wide email Tuesday containing the link to the Qualtrics survey.
The “drawback” of the new system is that students cannot vote if they delete the email with the link to the survey, Tomasso said. “You have to save that email. It’s not like it’s always up on a website,” he said.
“My concern is that people will delete that email, and then meet a candidate they like and develop an interest in the elections,” Tomasso added. “Then they go back and they can’t vote.”
Tomasso could resend the email containing the survey at some point during the voting period, said Abigail Braiman ’15, chair of the Committee for Admissions and Student Services. He could also restrict recipients of the second email to students who have not yet voted, said Todd Harris ’14.5, UCS general body member and presidential candidate.
The Council also approved A Better World by Design’s appeal to become a Category 3 student group.
Council members had previously rejected the group’s request to move to a Category 3 group from an umbrella organization of Engineers Without Borders, The Herald reported at the time.
Allowing an umbrella group to bypass the typical categorization process and jump to Category 3 status would set a “dangerous precedent” that other umbrella groups would want to follow, Jon Vu ’15, UCS alumni relations liaison, said at the time.
Representatives from A Better World By Design allayed council members’ concern by arguing against the notion they were setting a precedent.
“Ivy Film Festival broke off from an umbrella group and directly became a Category 3 group, and when that happened all hell didn’t break loose,” said Daniel Goldberg ’13. “Other umbrella groups didn’t try and become Category 3 groups.”
Having Category 3 designation will allow A Better World By Design to more effectively hold its annual conference without the “red tape of being an umbrella organization,” like having to work through Engineers Without Borders to sign contracts with sponsors, said Hannah Bebbington ’14, a member of the group.
The council also elected Gregory Chatzinoff ’15 and Stanley Stewart ’16 — the latter of whom is not a member of UCS — to the Undergraduate Resources Committee. The council selected Vu as an alternate.
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