Only four months removed from a dramatic election, the Student Government Association’s (SGA) executive board announced Monday it will hold another election to fill vacancies in its two highest offices Aug. 2.
The elections will fill the vacancies of former President Michael Benson and former Vice President for Student Affairs Chad Cooper. The two are serving a 30-day probation term after being found responsible by the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR) for viewing classified computer documents.
With Benson and Cooper’s probation ending in mid-August, they had hoped the four-member executive board would call for elections after the end of their probation so the senate could reinstate the two to their original offices.
If elections go forward as planned, however, Benson and Cooper would not be eligible to run for office. In response, Benson has recommended an appeal be drafted to try and overturn the decision.
Benson and former Sen. George Gottschalk, who is serving his own probation term for, have drafted the “mini-resolution” to raise support for a motion to overturn the e-board’s decision. The resolution was submitted Tuesday by Sen. Heidi Buchanan.
According to the SGA constitution, the senate can overturn an executive board decision by a two-thirds majority vote.
Approximately 45 senators have already signed the resolution, which is nearly the entire roster that would be present at the election session. Their signature is being taken as an assumption that they will vote to overturn the decision Aug. 2.
“If all goes according to plan, the elections won’t be much of a meeting. We’ll vote this, and go home,” Gottschalk said.
The resolution recommends the new election date to fall somewhere between Sept. 5 and Sept. 19, which would make Benson and Cooper eligible to run for reelection.
Interim President Ashley Adams, who announced the decision to hold elections before Benson and Cooper return from probation, said the decision was “not made on a personal level.”
“We had to work with the objective facts, and what we had to work with was that there were two vacancies [in the e-board] seven weeks before the fall semester,” Adams said. “We felt this was the best way to maintain the direction of the senate in serving the student body.”
Without the seats of president and executive vice president filled, SGA is severely limited by its constitution in the business it can conduct, said Interim Executive Vice President John Guilfoil. Last year, when former-President Andres Vargas was suspended by OSCCR for holding an illegal party, the senate did not secure its e-board until late October. As a result, the first piece of legislation was not taken up until November, and the number of freshmen recruits were down.
Guilfoil, calling the decision the “hardest thing” he has had to decide in his life, said the consequences of waiting as long as the e-board did last fail to elect new officers was not worth it for the organization.
“It’s so hard to remove yourself from your friendships,” Guilfoil said. “But last year, we got such a slow start. Last year was not as good as it could’ve been.”
Immediately following the announcement, many senators were quick to question the decision, citing the availability of senators who are rising sophomores come fall, the fact that Benson and Cooper were the elected choice of the association and the question of who will fill the void left by the two veteran leaders.
“I don’t feel that having a joint senate in the summer is best for the organization,” Buchanan said. “I don’t feel like the entire organization is going to be represented, with freshmen home for the summer, and other senators scattered on co-op.”
Guilfoil, who is also serving as vice president for administration and public relations, said “most freshmen” would be able to make the elec
