April 27, 2015
Evan Musick & Samantha Morley
[email protected] & [email protected]
The senator of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the senator of Beth-El and one senator-at-large position are vacant.
Former senator of LAS Aaron Collett graduated in December. Angela Busk, former Senator of Beth-El, resigned Feb. 25. Senator-at-large Janine Cantrell resigned April 2 in order to apply to become a justice.
“SGA has had high rates of turnover. Everyone who has ever been a part of SGA will tell you they’ve done it with the best of intentions. But often, the time commitment and expectations out of the members can be too much,” Christopher Roth, SGA president, wrote in an email.
“It happens frequently,” said speaker of the Senate Dylan Shuster. “A student that may be graduating in December may have to resign from their position, because Student Government requires you to be enrolled in at least three credit hours,” he said.
According to Roth, the three resignations are a “historically low” number for SGA.
The positions that are currently open will only be filled until the end of May, said SGA advisor and assistant director of Student Life and Leadership Sabrina Wienholtz. Come fall semester, the candidates elected during this semester will take their positions.
“The vacancies that are being advertised right now are vacancies for the rest of this term. The folks that were elected, their positions don’t start until June 1,” said Wienholtz.
Students who are interested in applying are directed to Mountain Lion Connect, where they can find a form for the open positions. After they fill it out, the form is submitted and reviewed by the Appointments Advisory Committee, which is composed of different branches of student government.
The committee interviews the candidates and makes a recommendation to the Senate, which then votes to confirm the appointment.
“Since we consider all of our members to be essentially speakers on behalf of the students, we trust our AAC with coming up with the recommendation whether to support this individual, or position, or not,” Shuster said.
When asked why they do not hold another election to fill the positions, Roth said that “an elections process is complex and time consuming for SGA and candidates.”
“It just simply does not make sense to have an election for only one or two positions when we, as an SGA, can effectively interview and select highly qualified candidates,” he wrote.
“We’ve worked hard to find new members who are committed to the challenge and time aspect of SGA.”
Every position, if there is no turnover during the summer, will be filled in the fall.