Spring semester is the time for Spring Break, the Celebration of Academic Excellence, and of course, SGA Elections. This year, the election process was done a little bit different than in the past. One of the changes included holding the elections process in March, instead of April. Seniors Kayla Kennedy and Payton Caldwell were the elections co-chairs this year.
“We wanted to hold elections earlier this year, so that those who were elected had plenty of time to shadow the current person in their position. We hope this will better prepare them for next year, when they take over that position,” Kennedy states.
Campaigning took place March 2-10 and voting started on March 11. During that time, a meet-and-greet social and speeches at Town Hall were held. The meet-and-greet social was new to this year and replaced the traditional debates.444
“Payton and I decided that a meet-and-greet social was best, because we wanted the students to be able to get to know the candidates at a personal level. We wanted to allow the students to ask any question to any candidate.” claimed Kennedy.
This year, there were 15 open positions with 18 candidates. Out of these 15 positions, one position, the Sustainability Chair, was recently created just this year. The SGA Sustainability Chair overlooks the Sustainability Council and the Sustainability Fund. This fund helps provide money and support for environmentally-focused projects benefiting the campus and encouraging student involvement. Proposals for class projects or individual projects/plan can be submitted for review. However, in the midst of all the changes, the way students applied to become candidates, remained the same.
“Students who want to run for an SGA position fill out a petition and turn in their application to one of the election co-chairs. After receiving all applications, we check for their eligibility. If they are eligible to run for their desired position, they become a candidate.” stated Kennedy
The elected candidates for SGA 2015-2016 will be sworn into their position during a future SGA meeting, which will be determined by the election co-chairs.
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