Hawthorn Court residents can not only vote for the next president of the United States today, but they can also vote for another shot at student representation.

The residents will be voting on a constitution for the Hawthorn Court Community Council, a proposed student government for the apartment-style living quarters.

Mary Beth Golemo, apartment community director at Hawthorn Court, said she has been working with Hawthorn Court students on a constitution for more than a month.

“I’ve been working with a group of students for six to seven weeks putting together a proposed constitution for the Hawthorn Court Community Council,” she said. “It’ll provide a collective voice for the residents.”

Golemo said the students wanted to seek a smaller type of government system unlike the Government of the Student Body, the Inter-Residence Hall Association or the association senates. Earlier this semester, Hawthorn Court residents voted 172-151 against joining IRHA. “They did not want to create a complex structure for their government,” she said. “It’ll be simple in nature and very effective. It’s modeled after a city council-type system.”

Jim McCurdy, junior in microbiology, said he has been involved in the creation process of the community council. McCurdy, a Hawthorn Court resident, said he believes less is more. “We’re trying to keep it as small as possible,” he said. “Anytime a constituent has a problem, you’d know who to talk to.”

Golemo said the proposed council will have one representative per cluster of three buildings to four buildings and a total of two at-large representatives.

The council would also try to seek representation in GSB during their spring elections, she said.

“[Once this is passed], the students would try and get folks elected this semester so the group would be up and running by second semester,” Golemo said.

Golemo said the community council would be required by its constitution to meet at least once a month and would be available to its constituents as much as possible. “How do you make sure that you’re really representing the community?” she said. “I think that’s a challenge for any politician, and I think that’ll be the first issue they will be faced with once they are elected.”

McCurdy said once the student leaders are elected into their positions, they would tackle such issues as parking and noise ordinances. “I think some of the issues would be to address visitor parking,” he said. “People want more visitor parking and also [more] motorcycle parking.”

He also listed recycling, sporting-good rentals and barbecue pits as things that are on Hawthorn Court residents’ wish lists.

Both Golemo and McCurdy said they were optimistic about today’s election. McCurdy said if the constitution doesn’t pass, the students will lose out on a good opportunity. “If this doesn’t pass, I don’t think we’d have a say in anything,” he said. “It’ll all end up being [taken care of by] the Department of Residence.”