SGA senate changes election criteria

Candidates running for student body vice president or president will not be allowed to hold any off-campus internship or externship requirements.

Tymoshio Robinson, president of the Student Government Association, proposed an amendment to the constitution’s election laws.

The SGA senate approved Bill 112, the purpose of which is to change SGA’s executive board candidacy requirements and election laws.

Robinson’s amendment added an additional part to section 2.5 of the constitution, creating section 2.6.

Section 2.6 states “In the event that a candidate for Student Government Association President and/or Vice President is required to complete an academic internship and/or education department field placement or student teaching requirement, he/she shall not be allowed to serve in these positions during the same academic year of the aforementioned requirement.”

Robinson said he believed that running for president or vice president comes with a lot of requirements and that people shouldn’t have to choose between their degree and school.

“I still believe there should be a level of how much you can be involved,” Robinson said. “And that’s not a negative thing to say. If you can’t do it, you just can’t do it.”

The current vice president of SGA is a student teacher among other roles on campus and splits his time between teaching and SGA.

“We know vice president Hough is doing student teaching,” Robinson said “And I think he is doing a great job still juggling both SGA and student teaching.”

Robinson said that being an athlete, doing student teaching and internships are like full time jobs.

During the question-and-answer session, sophomore political science major and SGA senator Alfonso Legette asked how Robinson could exclude someone else’s management of time.

“If that person is able to manage both of those and their time accordingly, then why does that disqualify them from that position?” Legette asked.

Robison told Legette that internships and other off campus requirements were not matters of time management.

“Eventually, you are going to have to choose where most of your time is going to go and if it is your degree requirement,” said Robinson. “Being the SGA president or vice president isn’t required for not one degree on this campus, but if you are an education major, going into that class is a requirement and almost always other things are going to get neglected.”

Robinson said section 2.6 only applies to off-campus academic internships.

Robinson said he wanted to make sure that people running and future elected candidates understood that the president and vice president positions require a lot of work and time.

“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing I am just saying these positions just need a certain level of commitment,” Robinson said.

Despite the speeches in opposition, the student senate passed Bill 112, which will go into effect immediately with the upcoming elections.