The Student Senate passed a bill at Tuesday night’s meeting to limit when candidates and political parties can campaign for Student Government elections. It also redefined campaigning.
The bill passed 39 to 12. It needs to be approved by the Senate for a second time to be enacted.
The revisions proposed campaigning start one week before elections and end when the polls close.
“Campaigning” would be redefined to encompass election-specific material that solicits support for a candidate or party.
However, the revisions also added “campaign activity” to the codes, which is intentional action or support of a party or candidate that does not solicit votes. Campaign activity would start four weeks before the election and end when the polls close.
The revisions also added Internet posts as an example of campaign material.
“You have to make it accountable to a party,” said Judiciary Committee Chairman Cayman Weimer after the meeting. Weimer presented the bill and was one of the authors.
Before the senators debated the bill, Weimer read an email from UF’s General Counsel explaining that the bill does not seem to violate state or federal law.
Sen. Lauren Verno, one of the bill’s authors, said it would bring more bipartisanship by allowing senators to focus on the Senate as a whole instead of campaigning.
“We represent over 50,000 students as a chamber,” she said. “This is helping the bipartisanship of Student Government.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Logan Harrison, another author, said his job encourages unbiased decisions, and this bill would allow him to remain impartial instead of campaigning for his particular party.
However, Sen. Max Stein said the revisions are detrimental to free speech.
Sen. Matt Pesek echoed Stein’s sentiments. He said whoever has the free time to campaign should have the liberty to do so.
“If we have more than one week [to campaign], we wouldn’t have to have armies of people harassing people at Turlington,” he said.
During the meeting, the Senate also approved Robert Andrade, Daniel DiMatteo, Michael Hacker, Brett Halperin and Cole Sullivan as new Supreme Court Justices.
DiMatteo sparked debate because he knew about hazing that resulted with his fraternity, Pi Kappa Phi, being kicked off campus four years ago. He held several leadership positions in the fraternity, according to his resume.
DiMatteo phoned in during the Senate meeting and said he knew hazing had occurred and followed appropriate channels by reporting it to the fraternity administration.
Contact Samantha Shavell at sshavell@alligator.org.
Student Body President Tj Villamil addresses Senate about new Supreme Court Justices for the upcoming year Tuesday.
