As elections approach for the coming academic year, Elections Director Mackenzye Pettit spoke to the Student Government Association about the various cabinet positions that will be opening up in SGA, their responsibilities and how to run for them.

Some of these positions include, but aren't limited to:

President: The face of SGA who meets with other campus offices and administration meetings
Vice President: The person who sets the agendas and runs the general board meetings
Treasurer: The person who manages SGA's budget and leads the Student Budget Allocation Committee
Associate Justices: A new position made up of people who provide advice on legislation and uphold the constitution and bylaws
Senators: People representing their college and voting on legislation.

Pettit said there are only a few requirements to run for office, such as being a CMU student and having a certain GPA based on the position they're running for.

Starting next week, SGA members who want to run for office will have to submit a form to Pettit, as well as collect a certain amount of signatures from students to show student body approval (the amounts differ depending on the positions being applied for).

She said that once the candidates reach the minimum amount of signatures needed for the position they're applying for, they will be officially put on the ballot.

Vice President Ryan Biller also said that the election committee was still in need of members before the elections cycle started.

"We can't run the elections if the elections committee does not have people on it," he said.

Pettit said that a full handbook explaining the election process and how to run for positions in detail would be handed out at the following SGA meeting on Feb. 19. In the meantime, she said members could contact her with questions.

Senate approves new sustainability chair and talks legislation ideas

Kathryn House was approved to be the new sustainability committee chairperson unanimously at the Feb. 12 senate meeting.

House was originally a member of sustainability committee for SGA, and has stepped up to lead the last two committee meetings. She said the committee had been working hard to maintain and create new sustainability efforts on campus. She hopes to bring this same energy into her new cabinet position.

Additionally, the senators discussed a few things they'd like to see change on campus and things they could write legislation about.

For example, Claire Deblanc said she was working on a piece of legislation to limit the use of tuition money on "swag" at certain events. She defined "swag" as unsustainable items students would throw out after one use, such as keychains and stickers.

"It's using people's money in an inefficient, not very helpful or productive sort of way," Deblanc said.

She said any senators interested in her legislation and wanted to look at and sign it with her could let her know after the meeting.

Carolina Hernández-Ruiz also talked about FLEX dollars and the price of goods in the market. She said some items in the campus markets run for nearly triple the retail prices in stores, and she'd like to see a decrease in those prices since not all students can get their groceries off-campus.

"Some people don't understand that FLEX money is your money, you pay for it with tuition," Hernández-Ruiz said. "You put in your real money, and then you go to the market and pay $10 for a gallon of milk. I think that's ridiculous."

While legislation has been started on some of these and just debated on for others, there are no estimates on if and when they will be proposed to the legislative branch.

In Other Events:

Biller said the format of the SGA meetings will be changing. Currently, SGA members attend a general board meeting in the auditorium, then go to either committee meetings or House and Senate depending on the agenda. Starting next week, Biller said SGA members will go to their committees for 30 minutes, then go to the general board meeting in the auditorium, and end the night going to House and Senate meetings.
Stan Shingles was a guest speaker at the event on behalf of Student Affairs. He commended SGA for their work at the last Board of Trustees meeting.
Another guest speaker was Joshua Smith, a philosophy professor and the interim director for General Education at CMU. He announced that general education is going under a revision and remodeling process, and he is currently looking for student feedback on the program. Students can learn more about the revision process and submit feedback through the General Education Revision Program webpage, or by attending the open forum meetings listed on the page.
The Academic Affairs Committee made Valentine's Day cards at their meeting. Some followed a YouTube tutorial on screen while others followed their own paths and relaxed before House and Senate meetings.