USG allows students to edit the 15 articles

On Tuesday, the Undergraduate Student Government shared a document of their 2018 Elections Code on their website, allowing students to edit and make comments.

The USG Elections Code, which was shared via Google Docs, is an extensive set of guidelines. The 15 articles inform the entire student body of aspects surrounding the election process, including campaign periods, conflicts of interest and candidate eligibility.

“It works as an outline for candidates to know what is going on, but also for the general student body to know what to expect,” said Nillani Anandakugan, USG’s co-director of elections and recruitment. “It goes further into detail about what a fair election looks like.”

The edit access allows students to comment on inconsistencies or unclear language present in the guidelines without permanently changing the document, according to Anandakugan.

“We realized that there was a lot of stuff that we overlooked,” Anandakugan said. “There were inconsistencies within the old code. In order to cover all of our bases, we wanted to make sure that everyone who is affected by the code has access to it and can give suggestions.”

Anandakugan said sharing the document is also a way to pursue transparency between USG and the student body.

“Because USG is an organization that serves the student body, the only way to truly serve [them] is to make sure that there is that type of access to electing the individuals who will affect students overall,” Anandakugan said. “We have to be open in all parts of this organization.”

The document will be available to edit until Nov. 6, the day in which the day the code will be brought in front of the USG Senate to be ratified. After the deadline, the only changes that can be made to the code will be decided by the Senate.

“We will take all of [the edits] into consideration and present them accordingly,” Anandakugan said.