Marshall’s SGA is structured like the federal government, it has a checks and balances system which is split into three branches: the legislative, executive and judicial branch.

In years past, the SGA had a judicial branch where the SGA president would appoint nine justices that served just as the justices of the federal government would. If a student was appointed their freshman year, they would hold that position until they graduated. The SGA has since gotten rid of this branch and made it into a committee in foresight of presenting students with the opportunity to go around the checks and balances system.

“You would have a group of students in the supreme court who were all from the same organization and that could lead to unfair or bias rulings,” said Matt James, the assistant dean of student affairs.

The executive branch is overseen by the student body president and vice president. Like in Washington D.C., where Joe Biden oversees the U.S. senate, here on Marshall’s campus, Vice President Emily Kinner has the same responsibilities, just as SGA President Matt Jarvis would have the same responsibilities as President Barack Obama.

Each of the executives have their own niche detailed in the SGA constitution and certain positions are required. The required positions are chief of staff, press secretary and business manager.

The business manager acts as a treasurer and they balance the budget within the SGA. Only 30 percent or lower of the budget can be used for executive salaries, which is also detailed in the SGA constitution. In the past two years, the budget has been kept under 20 percent.

Also in the executive branch is a diversity liaison. Their job is to serve the needs of traditional students that aren’t involved with SGA. If a student organization needs help in sponsoring an event or creating a club, the diversity liaison oversees those operations.

Alex O’Donell is the SGA’s pro tempore. He is seen as the utility man, as his responsibilities include being the liaison between the executives, student organizations, funding and the other branches of SGA. Anything that goes through the body of the SGA has to go through him, as well as the president and vice president.

Within the legislative branch is the senate. Each college is assigned a senator for every 500 students enrolled. One student counts as a constituency, so if there are 501 students in a college that college will be granted two senators. The largest represented delegation is the college of health professions, while the smallest is the college of arts and media.

“Senate is the heart of SGA. They are the work horses for lack of better term,” James said. “Everything has to go through them from funding bills, salaries for the student body president and election rules.”

The senate also has its own executives. One executive is the parliamentarian, who oversees the judiciary committee. The judiciary committee oversees membership and the election process to make sure it is fair and ethical in regards to campaigning and the budget for those campaigns.

The rules of those respective campaigns are voted on every year by the senate and the senate also has to approve the date the election will be held.

A misconception about SGA is they just give funding to student organizations.

“That’s just a small thing that they do. That’s just what student groups need from them the most,” James said. “Senators also sponsor resolutions, not just funding bills. A resolution is what started the bus shuttle system that opened this fall.”

Once those resolutions are passed, they are taken to the student body president, who then has the option to share them with the university president.

Kyle Camacho can be contacted at [email protected].