Online elections for Associated Student Government senators, president and vice president and changes to the ASG constitution will be held through Buzz-In April 8-10.
The election debate and open forum will be held from 5:30-8 p.m. April 4 in Webb Hall. The forum will conclude with a Q&A session with the provost and deans.
“Students can come and ask questions,” said Brooke Schmidt, ASG president and senior Spanish major.
Stuart Sneath, ASG vice president and senior sociology major, said proposals to change the constitution will be discussed at tonight’s meeting at 5 p.m. in the Senate Chamber on the third floor of the Memorial Union, including the reduction of senate seats from 27 to 23 and increasing other programs’ representation in ASG.
Amandra Campbell, ASG election commissioner and junior communication major, said that ASG is aiming to widen the range of involvement in the senate, despite the proposed reduction of seats.
“They are wanting to reduce seats in the senate,” Campbell said, “but we want to get more departments involved, such as the Student Athletic Advisory Committee and Multicultural Affairs.”
ASG senators “represent the college that they are in,” Campbell said, and boost their department’s representation in ASG.
“If the senator is an education major, they represent ESU’s Teachers College,” Campbell said. “Senators vote the way they feel will help their department, as well as the university as a whole.”
Campbell said the roles of the president and vice president are different in how they work and interact within ASG, but they both “represent the student body as a whole.”
“The vice president, as president of the senate, brings new ideas to the table,” Campbell said. “The president communicates what the students want to ESU faculty and the Kansas Board of Regents.”
Another amendment that will be discussed are the restrictions on how registered student organizations acquire their required 20 community service hours.
Campbell said the proposed change would allow RSOs to meet their required twenty community service hours anywhere in the Emporia community “instead of strictly 10 service hours off campus and 10 service hours on campus.”
Sneath said that any change to the constitution must be voted on by at least 10 percent of the student body for it to pass.
Campbell said questions surrounding rumors about the possible closing of certain academic programs, like political science, will also be answered.
The deadline to submit intent to run applications for the senate ticket to ASG is tomorrow.
