While national presidential campaigns are occurring on television, University student campaigns will begin soon.

Students will be running for the Illinois Student Senate, Student Trustee and the Student Organization Resource Fund Board.

However, one new addition to this year’s University elections will be a change in the monetary amount candidates are able to spend in their campaign. There is now no limit to the amount allowed to be spent on campaigning.

Previously, students running could only spend $500 for the Student Trustee campaign and $150 for both the Student Senate and SORF Board campaigns, said David Mangian, co-chairperson for the Student Election Commission.

The decision to abolish the cap was made by the Student Election Commission, an independent student body which dictates the rules the student elections are run by. Their reasoning was that to cap spending money for political campaigning was unconstitutional.

“Spending money is a form of political speech for your campaign,” Mangian said. “Even in things such as the United States’ political election, there aren’t limitations on campaign expenditures. There’s limits on donations, but not expenditures.”

The commission also used Supreme Court cases to help make their decision. Besides the reason of unconstitutionality, they also found that students in the past had an advantage if they ran for more than one position.

“We have had some issues in the past with students running for multiple positions and being able to spend more money than students running for one position,” Mangian said.

Despite these reasons for the abolishment of the campaign cap, some still don’t want it. Student body president, Justin Randall, said he takes issue with this new campaign rule.

“Personally, I’m opposed to the lack of a campaign spending limit,” Randall said. “It allows, in my opinion, for people to purchase seats by spending money.”

Though you can’t pay people to vote for you, it buys candidates more fliers and publicity, he said.

Campaigning students are required to turn in financial disclosures to the Student Election Commission showing how they spent their money. Prior to beginning their campaigns, the candidates are given guidelines about how they are allowed to spend their money. These financial expenditures are available for public review Feb. 28, after the elections on the 26th and 27th.

“I really don’t know what people will do with their money,” Randall said. “Now it seems like all bets are off.”

Chime Asonye, student trustee, also mentioned that without a cap, students would be able to purchase an election consultant or a number of people to help campaign.

“I feel like spending caps help level the playing field, especially in a student contest,” Asonye said. “When we don’t have a spending cap it becomes more about the popularity than the issues.”

Another contested issue is that students do not have a lot of money to spend on campaigning.

“Not all students here are equally affluent,” Asonye said. “I knew, as a student, I had to sacrifice $500. When you don’t know how much you have to sacrifice, it can lead to financial hardship.”

Students fund their own campaign expenses, and knowing how much they have to spend will enable them to do proper financial planning, he said.

“$500 is a lot of money,” Asonye said. “People could use it toward rent and books. $500 is not a cavalier amount.”

Renee Romano, vice chancellor for student affairs, said she plans to have a meeting with the student body president and trustee, as well as the Student Election Commission to discuss how well the abolishment of the campaign spending cap will work in practice.

“I try to leave the process up to the (commission),” Romano said. “I think the student commission does a very good job. They function outside of the politics of the student government. That doesn’t mean that (the administration) can’t tweak it and decide what is best and fair for our students.”

Even if, in the meeting, they decided they wanted to change the cap rule, implementing the change for this election may not be easy.

“That would be difficult,” Romano said. “It’s already been out on the Web.”

Romano still said she believes the commission serves the system well.

“The (commission) tend to be law students, so they tend to approach things more in a legal perspective,” Romano said. “They work very hard to be objective.”

The prospect of limiting the chance for some students to run because of the financial burden will still be discussed further, and the cap is not set in stone. The election rules are not permanent and can be changed every year.

“I don’t think that resources should be determinate of who we pick for student offices,” Asonye said. “As much as we want to think our campaign is like the national one, it’s not. We want to encourage people to get involved in the process.”