After an hour of deliberating a bill aimed to change the Election Code of the Student Government Association, the student senate voted 12-6 against it.
SB. 2025-01 introduced by senators Chris James, Niklaus Jordan and Kylan Wiliams on Jan. 27 introduced the legislation to improve Northwestern State University of Louisiana’s Election Code.
This bill would rewrite the SGA constitution’s laws on who can run for officer positions of president, vice president and treasurer. The proposed change would only require one full semester served on SGA before students can run.
“Our SGA has the most requirements out of most schools in Louisiana,” James said. “We’re trying to lower that to get more people to be interested in joining.”
Eligibility requirements in Article V, section 5.1b of the constitution currently state that a candidate “must have been a regular member for at least two consecutive semesters.”
Jhalea Dawson, SGA senator, explained that students in officer positions should be experienced with multiple active semesters to be able to effectively perform duties.
“You have to really think about the seriousness of the position that we will be including people that are kind of unqualified in those areas,” Dawson said. “Especially when it comes to financial decisions.”
S.B.2025-01 died after two voting rounds; the election code stays intact.
During the meeting on Feb. 3, SGA Vice President Hannah Davis announced the women’s luncheon event will be on March 6 with more details to come.
Filings for the Spring 2025 student body elections opened on Feb. 5 and will close on Wednesday. The election will be open March 11 at 8 a.m. and close March 12 at 8 a.m. Run-offs will be held on March 14 if necessary from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
SGA President Terrell Woodard Jr. will serve as election chair. Election board members include Zenobia Poydras, Lyndsay Brown, Hannah Davis, James Taylor, Lawson Turner, Victoria Byrd and Kelsey Benson.
Woodard also appointed three new senators: Ardyn Jardell, freshman senator; Megan Franchino, senator-at-large; and Matthew Bailey, senator for the College of Education and Human Development.
SGA meetings are public for anyone to attend and during the “Student’s Right to Speak” portion.
The full minutes will be posted on SGA’s purple portal/presence profile. To see all of the minutes from previous meetings and this week’s meeting follow this link.
