The Student Government Association, or SGA as it is commonly referred to around campus, is the governing body of the Stevens undergraduate student population. The SGA Senate is the legislative portion of this body, with Senators each representing 100 students from the school their major belongs to. The Senate allocates roughly two million dollars every year to student organizations and has the ability to pass resolutions that impact the lives of every undergraduate student. While SGA plays a prominent role in student affairs, the process of becoming an SGA senator is less immediately apparent. As such, it’s worth asking: How does a student become an SGA Senator?
The Senator election process begins with multiple informational meetings. This year, these meetings were led by the current SGA Secretary and Election Committee Chair, Carly Teitelbaum. In these meetings, interested students have an opportunity to learn more about the SGA’s structure, the steps in the Senate election process, and approved methods of campaigning. Any students who choose to continue with the process then declare their intent to run, and each provides a headshot and a short bio to be included on the ballot. Following their intent to run, all prospective candidates are required to collect a minimum of 75 signatures from their peers, who can provide their signatures regardless of the school they belong to. This portion of the process is run via open voting, meaning prospective candidates can see the number of signatures they have at any point in time.
Once the signature collection portion of the election process ends, the closed voting begins. Any candidates with less than 75 signatures are removed from the ballot, while those who meet the threshold are put on a ballot specific to their school. Students can only vote on the candidates in their respective schools, although they are allowed to vote for as many candidates as they would like within their school, provided they don’t vote for any candidate more than once. This portion of the election process is not visible to candidates at any point in time.
After all the votes have been tallied and the election period officially ends, senators are notified via email if they have won a spot in the SGA Senate. In cases where there are fewer candidates than there are open seats, candidates must simply get more votes than the “reopen nominations” option. In addition to the school-specific seats that students may run for, there are also “at-large” seats that are voted on roughly a month after the school-specific elections. These seats are open to students of any school, and once filled, they operate almost exactly the same as a school-specific seat would.
While the Senate elections may end here, the process for new Senators has only just begun. New Senators go on to serve on committees, attend weekly meetings, and pass resolutions for the betterment of the student body. Senators are expected to act in the best interest of the students they represent, and the SGA is continuously working on improving the lives of Stevens students wherever possible.
If you’re looking to make a change on campus, consider reaching out to one of your SGA Senators; or, if you’re interested, run to be a Senator yourself! For the Spring semester, there are 21 at-large seats available and the Intent to Run form will open on Tuesday, November 28 at midnight. The election process will be the same as regular elections except candidates will only need 50 nomination signatures to move onto the election. Good luck!
