General Studies Lounge

Constitution

Preamble
Article I. Name
Article II. Membership and Duties
Article III. GSSC Authority, Officer Duties and Terms of Office
Article IV. Offices of the GSSC
Article V. Budget of the GSSC
Article VI. Committees
Article VII. Elections, Nominations, and Succession
Article VIII. Impeachment and Resignations
Article IX. Meetings and Voting Procedures
Article X. Supremacy of the Constitution
Article XI. Amendments and Bylaws
Article XII. Ratification
By Laws

By Laws of the GSSC Constitution

01-01 Statement of Conduct

Members of the GSSC represent both the council itself and the student body of the School of General Studies. As such, conduct and courtesy, both professional and personal, is expected to be exemplary at all times and in all situations during which a Council member represents his or her office and/or the GSSC in general. This includes but is not exclusive to a Council member’s

• 1. Use of the council email
• 2. Conduct toward fellow council members
• 3. Conduct when representing his or her office at a GSSC meeting or event, an event organized by another council, University organization, administration or an event outside of Columbia University.

To this end, and in the interest of preserving an environment of mutual respect and cooperation for all council members, your conduct as a council member will be strictly enforced. While mature manner and adult conduct are assumed, the following shall serve as a guideline for the situations above.

1. Council Email
Council email ( gssc@columbia.edu or gsidea@columbia.edu ) shall

• a. Be used as a venue for the exchange of ideas, responses, and opinions concerning Council business when the Council is not convened.
• b. Not be a venue for personal opinions, judgments, or slander of fellow council members or their ideas.
• c. Be used for Council business only

2. Manner and Conduct Toward Fellow Council Members

• a. When addressing another Council member during meetings, officers should use a respectful manner and tone.
• b. Any concern, opinion, judgment, or constructive criticism of another council member is to be directed to that officer in private directly by the concerned person(s) and with appropriate discretion. If necessary, the Executive Board members may act as mediators for this discussion. Other resources for inter-council member conflict mediation include the Judicial Committee, the General Studies Dean of Students Office and the Ombuds Office.

06-01 GSSC Election Procedures
1. GSSC elections shall be held annually before the last day of classes in the Spring semester.
2. Annual Election Commission

• a. The Student Body President of the GSSC shall nominate a Commissioner and two other members to an Election Commission (hereafter referred to as the E.C.) at least four weeks prior to the election. If the GSSC Student Body President is not a Senior, the Senior Class President shall appoint the members of the E.C.
• b. Any current General Studies student may be nominated to the E.C. if s/he is not planning to run in the up-coming election. Priority will be given to members of the Senior Class.
• c. Decisions made by the E.C. are final, unless reversed through appeal to the Judicial Committee. (See Rules Regarding By-Law Violations, Section c.)
• d. If an E.C. member violates any section of the GSSC Constitution or of its By-Laws, s/he will be subject to removal, following a majority vote by the Judicial Committee.”

3. The E.C. shall

• a. Ensure a fair election process.
• b. Assume jurisdiction from the moment of the first public GSSC notification of elections until the last election dispute it resolved.
• c. Meet at least once a week for four weeks prior to the election.
• d. Distribute an Election Packet to interested members of the student body at least two weeks prior to the election which includes, but is not limited to a Candidate Registration Form, a copy of the election by-laws and a Rules Violation Form.
• e. Specify office hours during which they will view campaign materials.
• d. Rule on submitted Rule Violation Forms.
• f. Reserve the right to remove any candidate from the election if s/he violates the Election By-Laws.
• g. Prepare class-specific ballots for the election.
• h. Compile a Voter Guide to be distributed with a ballot to each voter, upon their logging into the election site, or upon their signing of the Voter Register in the event of paper ballot..
• i. Establish a time table of deadlines for candidacy declaration and campaign materials and start and finish times for campaigning. The deadline for Intent to Run forms may only be extended for positions for which no student has declared candidacy; supporting materials’ deadlines may be extended, with the discretion of the E.C.
• j. Use only the candidates’ official Columbia e-mail account when utilizing electronic mail, unless the candidate requests an alternative account on her/his Intent to Run form.

4. Rules Regarding Candidates

• a. Any General Studies student who meets the criteria outlined in Article III, Section i of the Constitution may run for a GSSC office.

• i. Any student who wishes to run for the office of Senior Class President or of Senior Class Vice President must be of senior standing, as defined by the Dean of Students Office, for the entirety of the upcoming academic year.
• ii. Any student who wishes to run for the office of a Class President or of Class Vice President must be expected to be a member of said class for the upcoming fall semester. In the event of any uncertainty pertaining to academic and/or class status, all the E.C. shall defer to the judgment of the Dean of Students Office.

• b. No student shall run for more than one office.
• c. All candidates must be able to attend the GSSC retreat at the beginning of the academic year for which they are running. The date for the retreat will be set by the outgoing e-board.
• d. To run for Student Body President, a candidate must have spent 1 academic year in GS with a minimum of 12 credits completed over those two semesters -- at least 6 credits a semester for two semesters.

5. Rules Regarding Campaigning

• a. All campaign activities are subject to official university regulations. If the E.C. determines that a university regulation has been violated, it shall have the right to remove any involved candidates from the election.
• b. The only forms of permitted campaign materials are flyers, palm cards, personal website on the Columbia server (i.e., www.columbia.edu/~ab1234/), free community web content (including facebook groups and IM profiles), door-to-door canvassing, public announcements, telephone canvassing, and emails. A garment may be worn for campaigning purposes--by the candidate only--but it must follow the parameters used for posters, must be approved by the E.C., and will be deducted from the poster allocation. No other physical and electronic campaign materials are permitted. Prohibited materials include, but are not limited to: chalking, use of whiteboards and chalkboards, creative uses of tape, food, and stickers. No alcoholic beverages may be served in connection with a candidate’s campaign.
• c. Individual Candidates may produce up to 250 total of flyers and palm cards to post or distribute as campaign materials. Each flyer may be a photocopied, single sheet of paper (any color) up to 8 1/2 x 11 inches with black ink print. Palm cards can be as small as 1/8 of the size of a flyer. Each campaign flyer and palm card must be approved and counted by the E.C. If approved, the E.C. will stamp the flyer or palm card, and deduct it from that candidate’s aforementioned 250-flyer limit. Candidates will be responsible for distributing or posting their approved campaign materials, and thus are responsible for making themselves aware of and following University-wide postering guidelines. Candidates may not eliminate, damage, or cover the posters and palm card of other candidates.
• d. Candidates who wish to use emails as a promotional venue may do so, but are subject to the guidelines of CUIT, the E.C. and the Election Bylaws.
• e. All campaign materials are subject to guidelines forbidding obscene, pornographic, racist, sexist, homophobic, alcohol or drug related images or words. Materials may not mention or attack, directly or indirectly, other candidates in any way. The E.C. may designate events in which the candidates will be allowed to address one another. During said events, the candidates must uphold the GSSC Statement of Conduct. The E.C. reserves the right to reject unacceptable materials, or discipline candidates who disregard these guidelines in campaign materials that do not require their direct approval.
• f. Candidates may not misrepresent themselves or other candidates with fraudulent information in any campaign activities. They may not attack the character of another candidate.
• g. No alcoholic beverages may be served in connection with a candidate’s campaign.
• h. Door-to-door and telephone campaigning may take place only between the hours of 10:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. daily.
• i. Candidates are responsible for the campaign-related actions of those whom they encourage, request, or solicit to be a part of their campaign. Furthermore, candidates are responsible for notifying such persons of the E.C. guidelines and Election By-laws.
• j. On the day of the election, campaigning may not take place within the building where the election is being held. Candidates may pass out flyers to those entering the building.
• k. No candidate may contact an individual based on information obtained from a petition, sign-in sheet, club list and/or any list compiled by the GSSC.
• l. Paid advertising of any kind is prohibited, outside of expressly approved campaign material.
• m. Candidates are responsible for checking with the EC when considering campaign activities not described in these regulations.

6. Rules Regarding By-Law Violations

• a. Allegations of rule violations must be submitted in writing to the E.C., even if an E.C. commissioner makes the allegation. The statement should include a description of the infraction(s), any corroborating accounts, and any materials that can be presented as evidence.
• b. The E.C., upon receiving the allegation, shall immediately give a copy of this statement to the accused candidate, who may submit a rebuttal to the E.C. within one day.
• c. The E.C. shall strive to reach a decision within two days.
• d. If the ruling of the E.C. dissatisfies the accused candidate, s/he may appeal to the Judicial Committee, which has original jurisdiction and may reconsider the entire case. An appealing candidate must submit, in writing, the grounds of their appeal to the Chair of the Judicial Committee.
• e. The Judicial Committee shall strive to reach a decision within three days.
• f. Penalties available to the E.C. shall include, but are not limited to: docking of flyers, website removal, disqualification from E.C. sponsored events, removing the right to use endorsements, removal from E.C. materials such as the GSSC website, removal from E.C. e-mail announcements and removal from the elections. Level of penalization shall be at the discretion of the E.C.

7. Rules Regarding Endorsements

• a. Candidates may seek endorsements from recognized student groups and publicize approved endorsements. The Student Group Endorsement Form is located at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/gssc/election/GSSCendorseform.doc
• b. To obtain an official endorsement, a candidate or party and the endorsing organization must comply with the following regulations:

• i. The party or candidate must present their platform at a full meeting of the student organization’s executive board
• ii. The endorsing organization must be provided with a copy of the Rules Regarding Endorsements (Section 7).
• iii. If the candidate seeking endorsement is a member of the student group’s executive board, then he/she must abstain from the vote.
• iv. The Candidate Endorsement Form must be completed and signed by the candidate seeking endorsement and the President of the endorsing organization.
• v. If the candidate seeking endorsement is President of the student group, then the next highest-ranking officer must preside over the vote and sign the Candidate Endorsement Form.

• c. Candidates must submit completed endorsement forms to the Elections Commission. Candidates may not publicize an endorsement until the accompanying form has been submitted.
• d. Endorsing organizations may not provide financial or material support to candidates. Their members may campaign on behalf of candidates, but must comply with all elections rules. Candidates may not campaign on event flyers of their endorsing organizations.
• e. Candidates may not be endorsed by the GSSC, CCSC, ESC, Barnard SGA, List College Student Council, Activities Board at Columbia, Student Governing Board, Community Impact, Club Sports Governing Board, or the Inter-Greek Council.
• f. Individual students may endorse candidates. However, candidates may not utilize said endorsements in their campaign materials.
• g. Candidates may not be endorsed by administrators, current GSSC members, E.C. members, J.C. members, or other candidates.

8. Rules Regarding Parties

• a. A candidate for the office of Class President and a candidate for the office of Class Vice President—for the same class—may run together as a party. They must identify themselves as a party on their Election Registration Form.
• b. In the event that candidates run together as a party, at most 50 out of each candidate’s allocated 250 flyers may be used to advertise the party with which they are running.

9. Rules Regarding Ballots

• a. Ballots shall be prepared by the E.C. and must be approved by all three members two days prior to the election.
• b. Candidate names shall be grouped according to the position they are running for and listed alphabetically.
• c. A space shall be provided under each position’s title that allows for a write-in candidate.
• d. Voters shall receive a ballot that includes the selection of candidates for Class President of their class.
• e. Voting shall be conducted on-line. In the event of technical failure, the EC shall hold paper balloting or choose to postpone the elections until later in the academic year.

10. Rules Regarding Voting

• a. Internet Voting

• i. The date and the time of the election is to be determined by the E.C.
• ii. The ballot will be held on a secure server on the University Network
• iii. Proper precautions will be taken with CUIT and/or other appropriate bodies in order to ensure a fair election.
• iv. Any evidence of a security breach or other violation affecting the vote will result in a defaulting to a paper vote.

• b. Paper Voting

• i. The time and place of the election is to be determined by the E.C.
• ii. Only E.C. members shall pass out and collect ballots.
• iii. Only General Studies students may vote in the election. Each student must present a C.U.I.D. at the election table. The E.C. will check to make sure they are currently enrolled by referring to a list of currently enrolled students provided by the Dean of Student’s Office. Qualified voters will then sign the voter register and will receive a voter information packet and a class-specific ballot.

11. Rules Regarding the Tally of Votes

• a. A representative of the Dean of Students Office must be present when the votes are tallied by the E.C.
• b. A simple plurality of votes will suffice to determine the victor in each office.
• c. In the event of a paper ballot the E.C. Commissioners shall tally the number of students who have signed the Voter Register and compare the number to the vote totals. If the discrepancy is greater than 5%, the election will be declared invalid.
• d. Once elections close, candidates have one day to issue any remaining complaints to the E.C.
• e. The E.C. shall release unofficial election results to the candidates once the 24-hour complaint period has elapsed, holding the races with outstanding complaints.
• f. A candidate may request a re-count if the numerical difference between the candidate’s total and the named winner’s total is less than 7% of all votes cast in that race. Such requests must be submitted to the E.C. within one day of the announcement of the results.
• g. When releasing the results to the candidates and to the school, the E.C. shall include the percentage of votes received by each candidate. Names of write-in candidates will only be announced if they received more than 5% of the total votes in that race, otherwise they shall be known as “other.”
• h. The E.C. shall release all results to the student body immediately after the announcement to the candidates, withholding those races under review or re-count.
• i. The E.C. shall release all remaining results as soon as re-counts or complaints have been resolved.

12. Write-in votes will be accepted.
A write-in candidate must receive a minimum of twenty-five votes in order to win an office. A write-in candidate need not submit a Candidate Registration Form. However, anyone who announces his or her candidacy in any way, will be considered an official candidate, and will be bound by all Election By-laws.