Students interested in running for Students’ Association Congress can pick up petitions at noon on Friday at the SA office.
“SA Congress is a great way for students to have their voice heard in the ACU community, it’s a great opportunity to meet a lot of different people from different grades and different classes and see how ACU works from the inside,” Jared Elk, SA vice president and senior political science major from Savoy, said.
Sophomores, juniors and seniors can run for class senator, dorm representative or academic representative, and freshmen students can run for class senator or dorm representative.
To run for class senator, students must be members of the class they will represent; to run for dorm representative, students must live in the dorm they want to represent; and to run for academic representative they must have a major housed in the building they will represent, Elk said.
After picking up a petition, students must get 10 percent of their constituents’ signatures and return the petition to the SA office by 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 2.
Campaigning for positions starts Friday, Sept. 3, and voting will take place Sept. 7-8.
Students will not only have the chance to vote for their representatives, but they will also have the chance to vote on constitutional amendments, Elk said. He said the majority of the amendments would update and clean up the constitution.
While SA has developed a voting application for mobile devices, Elk said they would not be available for use in this election because of the complicated nature of the election. Students can only vote for constituents who will represent their class, dorm or academic major, making each student’s ballot unique. Elk said it would be easier to have a traditional ballot for this election.
Elk did say, however, that they plan to use the app for the election of executive officers in the spring.
Sam Palomares, SA president and senior communication major from Elsa, said he became involved in SA after seeing people complaining without taking action.
“Students should run to get their voices heard,” Palomares said. “If you don’t represent the group you are from, there is nobody to voice your group’s opinions.”
Beyond voicing opinions, Palomares said SA needs more people from different backgrounds to create unity and change on campus.
