Students’ Association elections will take place Sept. 7 and 8, giving candidates more time to petition and campaign.
The SA executive cabinet decided to move the election from Aug. 31 to Sept. 7 so candidates have two weeks from Wednesday night’s interest meeting to voting day. Abbey Moses, executive president of SA, said this will give the candidates more time to decide what position they would like to run for.
“I just think that will mean that we have stronger congress members and more people who are involved,” Moses said.
Students will have until August 31 to turn in signatures from students. Candidates running for class officer positions will have to obtain more signatures than other representatives. Students who obtain the signatures and fulfill the requirements to run will have one week to campaign for their desired office.
Elections will open Wednesday Sept. 7 at 11 a.m. and close Sept. 8 at 5 p.m. Runoffs will take place Sept. 9 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Last fall, the website broke the night before voting and students had to submit paper ballots in person. The SA cabinet worked with information technology students during the summer to make sure the website can handle the influx of votes this election. Last spring, SA executive cabinet elections had its highest voter turnout with 1,441 votes.
Moses said the newly elected Congress will have to quickly learn the rules of order because the first budget meeting will take place before officers go on a Congress retreat.
The executive cabinet plans to make two amendments to the SA Constitution which includes adding and removing offices.
The first measure will cut two athletics representative office and add two offices for science, technology, engineering and math students. The measure will combine the four current athletic representative offices. There will be two offices for students in athletics, two for athletics and two for varsity athletics. Moses said the cabinet worked with Lee de Leon to decide on the best option for athletes who often couldn’t participate in Congress in the past.
“Student athletes also live in dorms and are in academic colleges they can represent, so it’s not limiting to them,” Moses said.
The positions for students in STEM fields will help diversify Student Congress, Moses said. While political science or english majors often participate in SA, students from STEM fields have been underrepresented. Student Congress will vote on this measure at the first meeting after elections. If it is ratified, the executive cabinet will appoint officers through an application process.
“That one’s a little bit more open and we’re going to be shaping that a little bit more,” Moses said.
The second measure will allow student activities offices to be added if necessary. The SA constitution can be read here.
