SGA Elections Are in Full Swing
Candidates have announced their running for the Student Government Association’s upcoming presidential and vice presidential election. Mohamed Mohamed and Tewobistya Burhanu are running against Keegan Baker and Ellie Hart.
Ethan Gladue, current President of SGA, says that anyone running for an executive position had to announce their interest at the first SGA meeting on Jan. 14.
“The Election Steering Committee creates a timeline for a petition,” Gladue said. “Between Jan. 14 to Feb. 4, each candidate needs to submit 250 signatures in order to get on the ballot. After the Election Steering Committee confirms that the signatures are good, the candidates move on to having a debate or public forum.”
The senators also have the same type of process. Mady Fleckenstein, chair of the Election Steering Committee, gave insight on how senators are determined from each school.
“Twenty of the seats are split between the undergraduate schools based on enrollment numbers, and the other three are equally allocated to the graduate school, med school and law school,” Fleckenstein said. “The amount of signatures they have to get is also based on the enrollment in their school or a minimum of 15 signatures, which is why you will see senators needing different amounts of signatures.”
The debate for the president and vice president positions has not yet been scheduled, however, in years past the it has beenheld a week prior to voting. The voting will be opened to part-time and full time students on Feb. 25.
Following last year’s voting process having unexpected problems, Fleckenstein ensures that will not happen again. Move the bottom of the quote.
“Last year we were not familiar with how the software worked,” Fleckenstein said. “This year we are going to do a lot better job communicating with students so they are aware of how the software works ahead of time.”
SGA moved the voting process up one week from last year to allow time for the new president, vice president and Senate to transition into their new roles. The positions will be slated on Mar. 18.
