Letter to the editor

KRIER News | Posted MAY 30 2008

Dear Editor:

I commend your editorial on the second page of the May 15th issue for highlighting the recent Student Council elections, but I want to clarify a few misconceptions and respond to "a few nagging issues."

The SC and Class advisors, along with the Executive Board President and VP, are not "...making the final decision regarding who ultimately gets elected." The student body was given the opportunity to choose four candidates from the ballot for their respective class. The top four vote getters were elected as the class officers for each particular class. At that point the four selected officers were interviewed and asked which office they would prefer to fill. Then based on their qualifications and stated desires, they were assigned to a particular office - President, VP, Secretary, or Treasurer.

It was done in this fashion because we anticipated not having many candidates this first time and agreed it would be pointless to hold an election where potentially only one or maybe NO one would run for a particular office. Only in the class of 2010 did we have more than 4 candidates. The class of 2009 only had three candidates! We understood that since this was the first year of holding elections in this manner there was going to be an issue with lack of involvement.

Our hope is that in future years there will be enough interest from the student body to hold an election where there are enough candidates to have them run for a specific office. Then perhaps we can have a "full-blooded, posters-hanging-from-walls, big-school-assembly election." The only thing stopping us now is student body apathy. That can only be solved by the student body as a whole.... The choice between an election and a popularity contest is yours alone.

As the saying goes,"If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem."

We, the advisors, would like nothing more than a full blown election with multiple candidates for each office, campaigns, position statements, and who knows...maybe even debates.

Thank you, sincerely, for your recognition of what we have done and will continue to try and evolve into a true democratic process.

Javier Martinez

Student Council Advisor

KRIER FYI - New Updates

KRIER News | Posted MAY 2 2008

The KRIER FYI section of the KRIER website provides Kaneland with up-to-date news and comments between issues.