Student Senate elections have typically been held during the spring semester, but due to a lack of interest and several executive positions running unopposed, elections will now take place this semester instead.
Former Student Body President Lucy Ade, a senior interpersonal communications major, said the elections were delayed because the group wanted a better pool of students to run.
The election timeline is:
- Candidate petitions are due Wednesday and can be submitted to [email protected] and [email protected],
- A Meet the Candidates social media campaign run through Student Government’s Instagram will happen on Thursday and Friday,
- Elections will be held through school email next Monday and Tuesday,
- Results will be announced at 7 p.m. next Wednesday at the Student Government meeting.
So far, the reception has been great, Ade said. She said although the number of candidates couldn’t be released at the time, there has been a jump in engagement.
Besides the lack of people wanting to run in the previously scheduled spring election, the senate also had a participation problem: Only three of its scheduled meetings hit quorum.
It hit its first official meeting in early April then sustained quorum up until the end of the year for two more meetings.
During the official meetings, the Senate approved a bylaw changing the quorum and the amount of students one senator represents.
Originally, 300 fully enrolled students counted for one seat, but after the change each seat represented 800 students with the minimum amount to meet quorum being 11.
When the Senate does not reach a quorum, it is unable to conduct official business like the approval of any new student clubs, the allocation of funds or the appointment of members to school committees.
Some of the proposals during the semester that could not be approved until April were:
- Raisings student fees for housing and dining, operation fees for the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union, Lantz Stadium and O’Brien Field, Grant-in-Aid and campus improvement.
- Various appointments to Faculty Senate, Distinguished Faculty Award Committee, and Bond Revenue Committee.
- Resolutions denouncing gun violence at two universities.
- Several budgets for various events and committees.
- Six registered student organizations.
- The allocation of funds to the Student Recreation Center.
Ade along with current Speaker of the Senate Karolina Guzek, a junior political science major, have spent a portion of the summer planning the election and Pantherpalooza tabling to encourage students to gain interest in the Senate.
Ade said although her term ended, and she is not officially associated with Student Government, she didn’t want to leave Guzek to run and organize elections and recruitment all by herself.
Rob Le Cates can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].
