Collegiate Times

1) Votes are never "counted". Using an online system, votes are tallied automatically and a result is spit out. Additionally, assuming that you can find a source more unbiased than the Chief Justice is a mistruth at best, and a complete falsehood at worst. Anyone that you give this responsibility may have bias. CSA is comprised mostly of students, and it’s chair and vice-chair are always students. Any third party you specify is just as likely to be biased as the Chief Justice. And the argument about being effected by the results doesn’t hold water. Does Virginia outsource it’s elections to Maryland? Does the United States outsource it’s elections to Canada? Does the United Nations outsource it’s elections to Venus? No. Example can be cited within this university of elections being run by members. Simply take a look at ANY OTHER STUDENT ORGANAZATION. You’ll find that they all run their own elections. It’s shocking that no one has ever picked up of that...

2) Giving power of SGA elections to CSA is a terrible idea. First off, SGA is a USCO (University Chartered Student Organization) like any other in CSA. To single it out and take control of it's election is insane and unfair. If CSA were to tamper with the elections of almost any other UCSO (GSA, BOC, BSA, AASU, VTU, LASO, RHF, and the list goes on...) the uproar and backlash against it would humiliate the CSA. SGA isn't the only organization to have issues arise with elections. You just hear about these more because SGA chose, when chartered, to make the voting process open to all undergrads. Almost every other organization on this campus holds elections in a meeting, in which only active members can vote. If you want to target elections that are internally focused and potentially biased, I’d say those are more a breading ground for it. If you plan to do this for SGA, you need to do it for every UCSO, RSO (Registered Student Organization) and USLP (University Student Life Program) at Virginia Tech, and CSA has enough on it’s plate without running 620 elections a year.

3) Lets go back to the any other student organization election here at VT. Those, too, have a nomination process. Generally after nominations are closed, you are given a choice of candidates and asked to choose among them. None of these make provisions for write-in candidates and yet, nothing has ever been said about it. And these are processes where running a write-in campaign is probably more feasible then it would be with SGA elections, because you only have a small group of voting members you need to sway.

4) “According to the minutes, after the group [CSA] discussed if an appeal process was needed, the CSA motioned a request that SGA "revaluate its election procedure including, but not limted to, its publicity and appeals procedure; and that SGA shall report on its reevaluation at the third meeting of CSA during the fall semester." The motion passed unanimously.” The CSA requested. Not required. And even the request was simply it reevaluate it. As far as we know, this reevaluation took place and the conclusion was that everything is fine the way it is. If other felt that the changes were in dire need, they would have stepped up, joined the SGA House of Representatives or the SGA Senate and proposed changes themselves. And yet, they didn’t. People tend to lose passion for something when their true goal becomes unattainable, whether that goal is to get your candidate into office or simply act on a grudge that you’ve held festering for a year (see 5).

5) If you want to find a source of bias, look to those individuals who filed the complaints. Billy Brubaker was a rabid supporter of last year’s presidential loser Ryan Smith. When things did not turn out as he had hoped for, he tried to overturn the elections without any grounds. He argued that the election rules, the very ones passed while he was a Senator, were unfair. You’ll notice that he only did this after Ryan Smith lost. You’ll also notice that never in his remaining tenure (he was a Senator in Fall of 2007, before he was forcefully removed for failing to attend almost every meeting) did he propose a change to the rules. He could have, but he chose not to. Rather then make positive change, he nurtured a vendetta until this year’s election rolled around, and waited to pounce on any flaw that he may have seen. He, like Ryan Smith, cloaks his own bitter, twisted arguments with righteousness, claiming that he only care for fairness. He, like Ryan Smith, was in a position make changes he felt were necessary, but instead chose to leave them as-is and criticize them later. He, like Ryan Smith, is a petty, self-serving, two-faced narcissist whose only true concerns are revenge and stroking his own ego. If I was ever accused of cheating, I would never feel that someone of his character would give me a fair trial in the Honor System.

6) The CT must feel that SGA is more important that any other organization on this campus. It’s the organization that gets the most press. It’s the organization that is looked into the most. It’s the organization with election that the CT considers so important that they and they alone, are worth reporting on. Have you ever seen an article announcing who’s running for president of the Black Student Alliance or the Residence Hall Federation, or even the results of such an election? No. Why? Well, the only reason I can think of I can think of is that the CT values SGA more. Why else would it blatantly ignore all other elections? As a member and former member of almost a dozen student organization here at Tech, I’m insulted that the CT is so focused to the point of not even noticing that these other elections are going on. Feel special, SGA, because the CT is like a five-year old boy with a crush. They like to push you and throw dirt in your hair, because they must be secretly in love with you.

With all that said, bravo once again CT on this fine piece of tripe... With Love and Insomnia: Bravo, the Fat Man (Bash me here or in private at Bravo@vt.edu)

Bravo, some nice points. Although I would argue that perhaps the CT covers SGA because, unlike the other student organizations you mentioned, it's the only one that in theory is supposed to represent all 26,000 of us.

To Bravo: I disagree. Like Anon. said, they do represent the entire student body while BSA or RHF represents a smaller number. I also think that the SGA screws up on a more grand, regular basis than any other student org. The CT can't help it when news lends itself and they mess up on such a large scale.

why have the csa if they dont exercise their power?

Who actually cares about the SGA? What have they done for the university? Or better yet what have they done for the student body? Think on that before you shout back, "Charity!" or raised money for some select group like "BSA"

First off, SGA does not represent everyone. Just undergraduate students. While that more than any other organization, groups like GSA (Graduate Students) and RHF (On-Campus Students) still represent close to 10,000 student themselves.|| Next, the CT may report SGA negatively, but I have yet to see an article that reports a "screw-up". If you'll notice, everything done with the write-in stuff was legal and within the rules. If you don't like it, get off your ass and change it.|| Why does CSA exist? Because there is no overarching organization that represents all students. Again, SGA is just undergrads. It exists so that when a student group wants to send something up through the university governance system, they can get what is considered general student consistent. Unfortunately, CSA is losing some of it's steam, as many of it's members have fallen into a habit of blowing off the meetings.

If you want to see SGA make change, get involved. The Executive Branch has roughly zero legislative power. It's the Legislative Branch's job to make change and this Branch is currently understaffed. Whose fault if that? I'd say everyone that wastes effort talking about how nothing changes rather then bending that effort toward doing something positive. It very similar to someone complaining about how your boat is sinking but refusing to pick up a pail and start throwing the water out. (For the record, SGA has never raised money for other student groups; raised money is used for operations.)

And it's not like the Legislative Branch has done nothing. It just hasn't reached it full potential, due to lack of membership and involvement. Most organizations are well aware that they have a seat in the House of Representatives and still choose to send to no one. Senate elections are marketed out the wazoo and still most people choose not to step up. The SGA passed less than a dozen resolutions this year. There should be closer to 25 or 30 a year, but this will never happen until more people stop whining and start doing. Bravo out...

Bravo, I agree with most of your points about the executive branch, legislative branch and CSA, but I'm still not sure I agree that SGA isn't accountable to all students. I know graduate students don't vote, but events like Big Event and Hokie Effect (relevance aside) still cast a huge light on this entire institution.

Alright, the SGA will not exist anymore. No More Relay for Life, no more Big Event, no more Orange and Maroon effect. No More Hokies on Fire. No More holding off-campus owners accountable. No More J.Crew Sale. No More people sitting on over 30 different commissions being the voice of students. No more passing legislation (like 4/16 being a day of remembrance, trying to get no protests, organizing a math emporium review panel to hopefully change the empo). No More gathering ideas and being able to speak directly with officials about what needs to be done. No more. How about that? I am SO SICK AND TIRED of being saying that SGA does nothing for you. Do some freaking research and you will see that we do more than any other organization on campus and everything we do is for the betterment of this university, which is all volunteer. Why do you criticize? Why does the CT right bad press? To be counterproductive in improving this University. This is absolutely ridiculous.

Oh no! Where am I going to buy my outdated bottom-of-the-barrel J. Crew clothes now?!?

Well, the majority of students here at Tech like the J. Crew sale..it is a chance to get nice clothes at discounted prices... do some research for once in your life.

Do you know why expensive clothes are usually discounted???? Do some research, it's called defective clothing.

you have no idea what you are talking about. The clothing is fine..not defective...where do you get all of this?

i don't think this is saying the SGA doesnt do anything, i think its saying that the CSA should have jurisdiction