Nearly a year ago, CAB implemented a new addition to its election code, limiting officer voting to in-house only. This change prevented the student body from voting to elect new officers in the organization.

Non-members never should have had the right to influence the election in the first place. However, a year later, following the 2024 election, the RSO is receiving backlash from many students about the change.

CAB is an RSO that coordinates FREE events open to the community. Although CAB offers many perks for students, the decisions made by the organization’s leaders mainly affect the other CAB members.

CAB is not student government. It makes sense for SGA members to be elected by students because they are a legislative body that serves our campus. Students elect SGA senators to prioritize campus issues and choose solutions to improve student life. However, most other large organizations on campus, including the Honors Program, 31 Ambassadors and Greek Life, do not allow outsider voting.

“Nobody on the outside sees what is going on inside the organization; they only see what we bring to campus,” CAB President Carlos Moses said. “The events we hold are optional; [CAB doesn’t] need an executive vote from the student body.”

Another issue with non-CAB members voting is that the election can become a popularity contest. Those running for an officer position rely on having many friends on campus to secure their votes. However, the people who worked closely with the officers within the organization disagreed.

“With elections being open to the whole body, CAB members felt that there was an unfair bias based on name recognition,” CAB Advisor Sidney Jones said, “rather than focusing on the knowledge of the person’s character and experience in CAB.”

Overall, if we want to see great events brought to campus, we need to let CAB do what it does best. We need CAB to make decisions and put those in charge that active members see fit, not just who is the most well-known throughout the campus community.