Student Senate To Consider New Election Requirements for Executive Board
A group photo of the Fall 2018 Student Senate (Photo Mary Frasier/The Gettysburgian)
By Gauri Mangala, News Editor
At the Monday, Mar. 4 meeting of the Gettysburg College Student Senate, senators tabled an amendment to the Constitution that would change language regarding the parliamentary procedure used in quorum, the amount of time allotted before allowing reintroduction of legislation that had been previously vetoed by the president from two meetings to one, as well as changing language regarding the qualifications necessary for running for an officer position. To see the full amendment, watch The Gettysburgian’s Facebook livestream:
“We wanted this amendment to spark the discussion about the office positions, specifically president and [vice president],” explained Parliamentarian Abby Hauer ’21 after the meeting.
Hauer announced in her officer report that Policy Committee would be discussing possibly removing all requirements regarding Senate experience from the presidential and vice presidential elections. This would allow any student to run for President or Vice President, regardless of whether or not they have ever previously held any voting position in Student Senate.
Although the text of the amendment presented at Monday’s meeting appeared to include that change already, Hauer said that came as a result of an error of copying and pasting and that the amended language meant only to add a redundant requirement that technocratic officers (Secretary, Treasurer, and Parliamentarian) have previous Senate experience while leaving in place the current rule that all officers must have previous experience so that the president and vice president issue can be discussed down the road.
Health Center Director Judy Williams then presented on communications between the Health Center and the student body on a variety of health-related issues. Understanding that many students do not read the Digest, the twice-daily email newsletter for the campus community, Williams explained that urgent announcements, like that of a recent influenza outbreak on campus, will be emailed directly to each student, rather than put in the Digest.
After Spring Break, Student Senate will reconvene on Monday, Mar. 18.
