With the creation of a temporary committee to develop a spring Undergraduate Student Government (USG) election code, senators and students have ideas to change the way elections will be conducted from prior years.

The Elections Code and Apportionment Committee (ECAC) will present a finalized election code to Senate by Dec. 10.

Scott Lueker (junior-political science) spoke before Senate last week, urging it to allow students studying abroad in the spring to run for office under the new code. USG's election code only allowed students attending classes at University Park campus to run for office.

Lueker, who will be traveling to London in January, said there may be students who wish to become a part of USG but would not be able to if that rule remains the same.

"If someone is going abroad and can still perform and meet the requirements, I don't think they should be counted out," Lueker said.

If the rule is changed, it would be hard, but not impossible, for a student studying abroad to run for USG, Lueker said. The candidate's friends and campaign managers would be able to help out with the work, he added.

South Halls Sen. Mike Jozkowski said he would like to see the cap on campaign spending continue to be lowered. The spending cap for the presidential and vice presidential seat was $700 in 2001 and $450 last year, he said.

Candidates with less money will run more proactive and creative campaigns because they must budget their money wisely, Jozkowski said. Lowering the spending cap would encourage candidates to speak to their constituents, rather than simply plastering flyers across campus, he added.

"It prevents tickets from buying the race," Jozkowski said.

When campaigning last year, Jozkowski found it most effective to converse with his constituents because they could put a face to his name, he said.

"If they actually meet you and talk to you, they're more receptive to your campaign, and you can answer their questions," Jozkowski said.

Town Sen. Jeff Paradise said he would like to see a ban on campaign flyers, which he did not consider an effective campaigning method.

"The people who vote, vote for the best candidates through word of mouth rather than best flyers," Paradise said.

Some candidates worried about opponents tearing down their flyers last year, he said. Flyer violations were nonexistent in last year's election code. This meant candidates could post on top of other candidate's fliers without penalty.

"I know there was a lot of paranoia surrounding them," Paradise said.

Paradise never used flyers when campaigning for Senate last semester, he said. Instead, he said he met and spoke with future constituents he knew would support his platform.

Paradise said he is interested in getting more feedback from senators about his idea to ban flyers.

"I really just see it as a waste of paper and time and effort, but we'll see what other people think," he said.