Northwestern State University of Louisiana’s Student Government Association proposed two new resolutions and discussed the upcoming homecoming and senate elections opening on Wednesday Sept. 18 at 8 a.m. and closing on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 8 a.m.
In Spring 2024, SGA made changes to the student constitution decreasing the total number of members in the senate. The SGA senate is now composed of 19 senators: three senators from each of the four academic colleges, four at-large senators and three freshmen senators to be elected this week.
The senators representing the College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business and Technology, Gallaspy Family College of Education and Human Development, the College of Nursing and the at-large senators were elected during the Spring 2024 student body election as previously reported.
According to the election board chair Niklaus Jordan, the Fall 2024 student body election includes homecoming court, Mr. and Miss NSU and freshman senators. Voting will take place online via the SGA Purple Portal page which can be found in the SGA Instagram bio.
During the meeting Jordan, who is a senator for the College of Nursing and Allied Health, read the election code.
Campaigning for freshman senators shall begin upon approval of their application and continue until the conclusion of the Student Body election, Jordan read.
The code also states that there are no limits on the amount of money a candidate may spend on campaigning materials, candidates may post any signage, post on social media and handout any materials they wish as long as they adhere to the Election Code and the SGA logo shall not be used in any campaign materials.
“There shall be no campaigning on the part of nominees for homecoming court or Mr. and Miss NSU including the posting of the election link,” Jordan said. “The election board may create a graph depicting those nominated, but the nominees can share only this graphic.”
Any candidate who violates these provisions from the election board shall be immediately disqualified, Jordan said.
The results will be announced once they are verified by the election board at their meeting on Thursday at 8 a.m. Once the results are signed by the SGA members, the results will be posted on the SGA website and sent out to student emails.
Following the explanation of election and campaign rules, the SGA meeting continued to introduce two new resolutions to be voted on next week.
Senator Jordan also introduced new business with the resolution R.F. 2024-02 on nursing congratulations and R.F. 2024-01 on hazing prevention.
The speaker of the senate Zenobia Poydras said these resolutions will be voted on for next week’s meeting on Sept. 23.
SGA also named senator Chris James of the College of Arts and Sciences senator of the week.
SGA also announced their upcoming events: there will be a hazing prevention speaker, Mindy Sopher, during the Sept. 23 SGA meeting at 6 p.m., a suicide prevention speaker on Nov. 7 at 5:30 p.m. and a campus safety walk for SGA members that will follow directly after their meeting on Sept. 30.
