SGA holds senatorial elections

The Student Government Association held its senatorial elections this past week and 25 new senators were elected.

“There was a really diverse group of students running for election this year,” said Justin Haight, SGA vice president. “There was a pretty even number of students representing each class who were all involved in activities around campus.”

The students elected five senators from each class and five at-large representatives. These students will serve a one year term and will vote on issues concerning the student body, such as a smoke-free campus and parking.

“I wanted to run for Senator because I want to work on things that are important to the entire student body,” said Kayla McCollam, a newly elected senator. “I don’t want to just hear the opinions of students, but I want to act upon them as well.”

Some senators have already had students come to them about issues they want to change at GCSU.

“Students have came to me and voiced some of the issues that they want changed on campus such as freshmen parking and a non-smoking campus,” said Megan Moss, freshman senator. “A couple of students are also interested in going green and telling me about ideas such as setting up recycling bins on campus.”

This year, SGA saw a record number of senators running for re-election. 14 out of the 25 students elected this year are returning senators.

“It is very exciting for us with SGA to see so many returning senators,” Haight said. “One of our goals for this year was to have a high retention rate of senators.”

Moss is looking forward to serving on SGA.

“I first heard about SGA from one of my sorority sisters who was a senator,” said Moss. “I saw how much she enjoyed and knew about some of the things that SGA does, such as homecoming, and knew I wanted to be a be a part of it and serve my student body.”

This election was also the first to be completely electronic and allowed student to vote through myCATS. Approximately 1,250 students voted in this election. Last year’s SGA senatorial elections only had 525 students voted. This increase is likely due to the change to electronic voting.

“I felt that having the election be electronic was definitely a help in my campaign,” said McCollam. “I was able to tell students exactly where and how to vote.”

In the future, all SGA elections will be electronic. SGA says allowing students to vote electronically makes it easier for both the students to vote and for SGA to track results.

Another advantage for electronic voting is that SGA is able to combine the elections with a survey about issues facing campus. This election featured a survey about making GCSU a smoke-free campus.

“This gives us a way to really see how the students feel about certain issues,” said Haight. “Many people are not willing to take time out and take a survey while on campus, but allowing people to do this in their own time, and in the comfort of their home, will hopefully encourage students to tell us how they feel.”

The first senate meeting is scheduled for Sept. 24 and is open to all students, faculty and staff.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 19 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry