The Undergraduate Council of Students updated its spring 2022 elections timeline at its general body meeting Wednesday evening.
According to current UCS President Summer Dai ’22, the Student Government Association has decided to remove official student group endorsements of candidates for the spring elections. This means UCS will not officially regulate or publicize any endorsements and endorsements will not be listed on the ballot, according to Dai.
“With the addition of CCB into the same student government elections, there are going to be many more candidates … who have the potential of being endorsed,” Dai explained. “No one … managing the elections has the capacity to monitor all the endorsements.”
She added that any UCS member can volunteer to oversee the endorsement process. Overseeing the process would include making sure club leaders who endorse candidates actually come to the open platform — the event that will replace the debate — where candidates share their visions.
In previous student government elections, student groups were able to endorse the candidates in a public list released by the Council before elections occured. UCS had debated the efficacy of student group endorsements in its last two meetings.
Dai also presented a tentative elections timeline, which will be finalized and emailed to the student body before spring break, she said.
According to the tentative timeline, an elections information session will be held April 7, after which candidates can start petitioning and gathering signatures.
The Student Government Association also reduced the signature requirement from 100 to 50 to “lower the barrier” to running, The Herald previously reported.
Under the current timeline, the elections process will last from April 7 to April 15 at midnight, when the vote closes. Students’ candidacy will be approved by April 11 at 9 am, and candidates can submit campaign materials for review afterward. Results will be announced Monday, April 18, Dai said. The timeline is still subject to changes.
Also at the meeting, UCS Polling Directors John Lin ’23 and Lucca Paris ’24 highlighted some results from the UCS Fall Poll.
According to Lin and Paris, Counseling and Psychological Services has the highest student dissatisfaction rating of all University services. Lin added that the poll found that roughly 40% of students who reported having mental health issues did not report using CAPS.
Student Accessibility Services also has a high dissatisfaction rating. The poll found that primary issues with dining services include understaffing, long waiting time and low quality of food.
Also, according to Lin and Paris, approximately 90% of respondents who live in University dorms reported broken laundry machines and over 50% reported restroom issues.
UCS Chair of Campus Life Mina Sarmas ’24 said that the contract with the current laundry service company will end this June and “no matter what (new) company (they choose), it’s going to be new machines.”
Kathy Wang is the senior editor of community of The Brown Daily Herald's 134th Editorial Board. She previously covered student government and international student life as a University News editor. When she's not at The Herald, you can find her watching cooking videos or writing creative nonfiction.
