2008 Woodie Awards
SGA needs 16 more senators
Doug Graham, Editor in Chief
Issue date: 8/30/07 Section: Front Page
- Page 1 of 1
Thanks to a botched election in which everyone who ran for a student government position vied for the same 10 positions, this year's Senate is operating at literally half its capacity.
"Basically what happened was with the elections, almost everyone ... ran for the senator-at-large positions, and there are only 10 of those to be filled in the Senate," said Jeremy Johnson, SGA president.
The result? After the 10 senator-at-large positions were filled, 16 other spots remained open because nobody ran for them.
"It was kind of assumed, well, if you have that many people running you would just take the senators that ran (to fill the other slots)," Johnson said.
However, SGA rules prevent senators from occupying positions that they didn't specifically run for.
Johnson says that students are generally supposed to run for Senate as a representative from their college - the College of Business, the College of Technology and so on - which each have a number of seats available on the Senate.
None of last year's potential senators decided to run for anything but senator-at-large, a position which, Johnson says, is identical in duties and power to being a senator from one of the colleges.
While this has left SGA scrambling to fill the positions with new applicants, the news is not, says Johnson, all bad.
"We have 16 senator positions open and 30 people running," Johnson said. "This is the biggest margin I've ever seen. I'm excited because we're actually going to have a full Senate and there are a lot of people that want to be in it."
Johnson says he and other SGA members will review applications and appoint people in the next few weeks. Students who are interested in joining SGA are encouraged to hand in an application to the SGA office, downstairs in the student center, by this Friday.
Mark Johnson, who attends nearly every SGA meeting as part of the Faculty Senate (in addition to being Jeremy Johnson's father), says a full house in the Senate would mean good things for the campus at large.
"The Senate makes decisions that affect the average Joe Blow," Mark said. "Having those spots filled means a greater majority of the students being represented fairly in those decisions and recommendations that are being made."
Both Johnsons say they're happy with the number of students who are eager to fill the empty slots.
"The good news is that's a frustration for a lot of senates - filling vacancies all year long," Mark said. "I guess Jeremy and Larry (Fleury, vice president) are doing a decent job because they have 16 slots and 30 applicants already."
"Basically what happened was with the elections, almost everyone ... ran for the senator-at-large positions, and there are only 10 of those to be filled in the Senate," said Jeremy Johnson, SGA president.
The result? After the 10 senator-at-large positions were filled, 16 other spots remained open because nobody ran for them.
"It was kind of assumed, well, if you have that many people running you would just take the senators that ran (to fill the other slots)," Johnson said.
However, SGA rules prevent senators from occupying positions that they didn't specifically run for.
Johnson says that students are generally supposed to run for Senate as a representative from their college - the College of Business, the College of Technology and so on - which each have a number of seats available on the Senate.
None of last year's potential senators decided to run for anything but senator-at-large, a position which, Johnson says, is identical in duties and power to being a senator from one of the colleges.
While this has left SGA scrambling to fill the positions with new applicants, the news is not, says Johnson, all bad.
"We have 16 senator positions open and 30 people running," Johnson said. "This is the biggest margin I've ever seen. I'm excited because we're actually going to have a full Senate and there are a lot of people that want to be in it."
Johnson says he and other SGA members will review applications and appoint people in the next few weeks. Students who are interested in joining SGA are encouraged to hand in an application to the SGA office, downstairs in the student center, by this Friday.
Mark Johnson, who attends nearly every SGA meeting as part of the Faculty Senate (in addition to being Jeremy Johnson's father), says a full house in the Senate would mean good things for the campus at large.
"The Senate makes decisions that affect the average Joe Blow," Mark said. "Having those spots filled means a greater majority of the students being represented fairly in those decisions and recommendations that are being made."
Both Johnsons say they're happy with the number of students who are eager to fill the empty slots.
"The good news is that's a frustration for a lot of senates - filling vacancies all year long," Mark said. "I guess Jeremy and Larry (Fleury, vice president) are doing a decent job because they have 16 slots and 30 applicants already."
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