Jonathan Krueger

New financial policies and the H1N1 virus were the dominant topics discussed when Associated Student Government met last Thursday in the Kanza room.
“What we really want to keep looking at is what is an appropriate use of student fees,” said Jonathan Rivers, junior secondary education major and chair of fiscal affairs.

The newly introduced bill on financial policies will change how student fees are allocated to Recognized Student Organizations.

This issue will be examined further at one of the upcoming meetings so student senators were asked to start gathering thoughts on the topic.

Jonathan Krueger, senior political science major and ASG president, said that this bill is one of importance to many people.
“This is a bill that it’s taken us about four months to work through,” said Krueger. “It has been a significant overhauling in several views. There’s a lot of changes that are going to affect a lot of people.”
A lighter topic at the meeting was introduced by Liz Coffey, junior earth science major and ASG vice president, who explained a new procedure for this year’s student government.
“New senators will be paired with a seasoned member of senate so you can have a little more information on how to get involved in senate,” Coffey said to the senators. “That’s just who you’ll go to for guidance on how to get through senate.”
Coffey also informed the senate of their responsibility to man the tables for the “ASG Hears You” weeks which will start this month. ASG will be in Memorial Union on Sept. 21, 23 and 25 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Students can come up and ask you questions and voice concerns and things like that just so that we’re a little more visible,” Coffey said. “We’ll start in Memorial Union and then we’ll move on to other buildings.”
Caroline Ewing, legislative director, spoke next about the H1N1 virus.
“We had somebody from healthcare services come and talk to cabinet about it,” Ewing said to the senate. “There is a confirmed case on campus, but the thing you need to realize is there’s not a limited number of cases, there could be more than one, but there’s really no reason to freak out.
“It’s just like the common cold, except for it attacks people our age. What you really need to focus on is washing your hands and telling constituents to wash their hands. Also, don’t feed into the hype. As senators and representatives, (we should try to) keep the talk a little bit down. Everything is fine and healthcare services has a plan and they are doing everything possible to eliminate a really bad situation here.”
In order to be able to effectively inform the student body of this illness, ASG will have a representative from the student health center speak at its next meeting.

“We will be having the health center speak to us on Sept. 24 regarding (the H1N1 virus),” Krueger said. “We are going to get more information about vaccines and accessibility to students at that meeting.”

Sarah Shaw/The Bulletin

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Liz Coffey, sophomore earth science major, and Jonathan Krueger, junior political science major, are congratulated Wednesday evening in the Memorial Union after winning the 2009 ASG presidential and vice presidential election. Kruger and Coffey won by margin of 89 votes. Kellen Jenkins/The Bulletin.

With a difference of 89 votes, Jonathan Krueger, junior political science major, and Liz Coffey, sophomore earth science major, were elected 2009 president and vice president of Associated Student Government, with a vote total of 497-408.

“I’m excited,” Krueger said. “It was a well run race and we’re certainly excited to see a good turnout.”

Both Krueger and Coffey said they were ready to put their campaign promises into action.

“I really just want to get everything started now,” Coffey said. “I’m going to call my mom in a few seconds.”

Voting started at 8 a.m. Monday and ended at 4 p.m. yesterday. The turnout, which was about 21 percent of the student population, doubled from last year.

“We didn’t reach the 25 percent (that we had made as a goal at the beginning of the election) but we got 20,” said Shaunquez Powell, junior crime and delinquency studies major and election commissioner for ASG.

Powell said that more people voted for Krueger and Coffey alone than those who voted last year.

“We saw how big an impact the union campaign made on voting,” Krueger said. “Over 800 people voting is phenomenal. If we can get out and reach students in that way, I think we can have a successful year.”

Only 488 people voted last year. A total of 920 ballots were cast this week.

“It seemed like a lot of people actually voted this year,” said Eric Swanson, junior secondary math education major. “In the past, I don’t think there has been quite as many votes.”

Swanson drew on personal experiences to help him cast his vote.

“I’ve known Jonathan for about three years now,” Swanson said. “I know that he is a great leader. I’ve seen what he’s done in organizations around campus. I have a really good feeling about what is going to happen for the school.”

The new administration will start its term on May 17, said Bryce Cooke, freshman secondary social science education major and executive assistant to ASG. They will be active throughout the summer but will officially start in August.

A total of 12 ASG senators were reelected. One senator representing the School of Business, five senators representing the college of liberal arts and sciences and six senators representing the teacher’s college were chosen.

Any write in candidates that did not receive 10 percent of votes were not reported in the election results.

Mary Shivley, coordinator for the center for student involvement, began counting and verifying the ballots as soon as the election ended. Powell showed up at about 5 p.m. to help.

“The system that we use does calculate the votes but then the election commissioner and I, we go in and verify the results to make sure that every thing is correct and current,” Shivley said.

Shivley and Powell cross-checked each vote to make sure that every person only cast one ballot.

“The system is pretty flawless, but we go through and look at every single vote that is cast and make sure that no person voted twice,” Shivley said. “The system pretty much regulates that, but we also regulate that by hand.”

However, the new system initially did not allow some a few hundred students to vote, as emails containing the ballots were not sent to those students’ addresses.

Paper ballots were made available on Wednesday for students who had not received the email to vote, said Sarah Schulte, senior microbial and cellular biology major and current ASG vice president.

Schulte also said that Shivley and Powell would have some extra work to do because of the paper ballots because they had to be counted by hand and added to the total.

“We haven’t done (the voting) with this system,” Shivley said. “If it does show the results, that I could see how you voted, the only people that would be able to see that information is myself and the election commissioner.”

However, Shivley and Powell will have to make sure that students did not vote more than once, either online or with a paper ballot.

But with the voting complete, Krueger has high hopes for his upcoming term as president of ASG.

“The main differences in how our administration is looking to running ASG in this next year will involve us getting out of the office, all of the time,” Krueger. “I’d like to say thanks for giving us the chance. We won’t disappoint you.”

Ashley Peaches/The Bulletin

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