Voting starts today for a Student Government special election to reduce the assembly size for the next administration by eight representatives.
Legislation, which passed in October with 37 votes, reduced the assembly size, but it can only be enacted if the majority of the students who vote in the election decide in favor of the changes.
The intention of modifying the size of the assembly is to represent the student body more effectively by reducing the number of representatives allotted to each college, which would streamline the process representatives go through to pass initiatives, said SG President Keshav Rajagopalan.
The colleges of Liberal Arts, Natural Sciences and the McCombs School of Business will each lose one representative in the assembly, leaving them with two, five and four remaining representatives, respectively. The legislation will also reduce graduate representation by one for a total of five representatives.
In the current constitution, every college is allotted one representative for every 2,000 students. With the new amendment, there will be one representative for every 2,500 students in a college. The proposed amendment would take effect during the next general election in the spring.
The current assembly is too large, because there are too many appointed representatives and not enough students who ran for positions, said Danielle Brown, author of the legislation and a Liberal Arts representative.
Chelsea Fosse, SG spokeswoman, said she expects student leaders on campus to spread the word about the special election.
This is the first election where students will be able to vote around the clock, Fosse said. Students can vote online at utsg.org starting today at 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Nov. 13.
The legislation was proposed after Rajagopalan created an election reform task force last summer to finish legislation started by his predecessor, Andrew Solomon. The task force includes members of the election supervisory board, one representative from the old task force, one newly-elected representative and a student who has no prior involvement with SG.
The task force aims to increase competitiveness in student elections. During elections last spring, 20 of the 50 open spots were uncontested, and three at-large positions were appointed.
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