Students wishing to run for class officer positions will now face stricter ballot access standards, thanks to a constitutional amendment passed by the Student Senate Wednesday.
Previously, class officer candidates - who run for office in teams of four (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer) - had to obtain 100 signatures from members of their class in order to get their names on the ballot.
But in an 18-4 vote, senators voted to raise that requirement to 200 signatures.
St. Edward's senator Brian Lan crafted the amendment, which came out of the Senate Oversight committee. The stricter requirement is not meant to deter students from running for office, Lan said. Instead, it merely forces candidates to gather support from a larger percentage of the class.
"It was so easy to get on the ballot [by getting 100 signatures]. ... Now, this shouldn't change who is on the ballot, but it will get a better representation."
Gathering 200 votes is about 10 percent of a given class at Notre Dame - a standard that, Lan believes, is more comparable to the 700 signatures that student body presidential and vice presidential candidates must gather in order to run for those offices.
In other Senate news:
u The third and final student-alumni reception will take place Nov. 3 - but the location has not yet been determined, said University Affairs committee chair Aly Baumgartner. Film, television and theater majors should try to attend the event, Baumgartner said, since prominent alums working in the entertainment industry will probably go to the reception when they are on campus that weekend.
