At a brief formal meeting on Monday night, members of the Student Government Association (SGA) discussed committee updates and upcoming deadlines to prepare for elections and club budgeting.
The election process will begin formally on Feb. 11, when SGA will approve an election commissioner and a four-person election committee at the next formal meeting. Any candidates will have from Feb. 19 to March 22 to complete a petition and election packet.
Last spring, the current SGA executive board, except for Elizabeth Hernandez, vice president of academic and student affairs, ran under the OneSRU ticket, the lone ticket in the election.
“We’re hoping for a big election turnout this year, so it will be a lot of fun,” Dallas Kline, SGA president, said.
The number of candidates and tickets will be determined after the March 22 deadline to submit petitions and election packets. Campaigning for the election will begin on April 1.
To fulfill eight open senate positions for the current semester, Chadwick Burdick, vice president of outreach, announced an upcoming social media campaign, “New Year, New Senators.” Open positions include four commuter, three building (Building B, Building E and North Hall) and one graduate senators.
Logan Tupper, vice president of finance, explained a change in the student organization budgeting process. For the 2019-20 academic year, student organizations must submit a budget using CORE. An organization executive board member who has administrative permissions on CORE will go under the “treasury” tab to complete their budget; the club advisor will need to approve the budget as well.
Tupper explained that the budget form on CORE will include dropdown lines, so an executive board member will only need to select specific items on those lines.
“It will be so easy,” Tupper said. “It will make it easier for us and easier for them.”
Club budgets are due on CORE by March 8. The finance committee will be available to meet individually with club representatives on Feb. 19, Feb, 26 and March 5 from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. in the Smith Student Center (SSC).
The senate also approved their support for SRU Giving Day on March 26. The approved motion states that SGA will donate up to $3,000 as a matching contribution for the student organization that raises the most money on Giving Day. The matched donation will go toward the student organization’s budget for 2019-20.
Hernandez provided an update on SGA’s food pantry initiative. Her committee will receive food safety training from Paul Novak, interim executive director of planning and environmental health and safety, in order to assist in food pantry operations.
Hernandez also announced that food is available to any student, not just those who consider themselves food insecure.
“If you need food or anyone you know needs food, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly,” Hernandez said.
On Monday, no clubs sought SGA recognition through the rules and policies committee. The finance committee also didn’t recommend any new initiative or capital budget requests for approval.
SGA’s next formal meeting will be Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the SSC Theater.
