The Muslim Student Association had an emergency election Feb. 3 to elect a new president and vice president.

Traditionally, the MSA holds elections, like most campus organizations, at the beginning of the school year, but this semester they had to change.

The former officers realized this semester they would not be able to devote the proper amount of time to the MSA they did last semester, so they chose to step down. 

“We thought an election would be better to kind of shift things around and give people who are more available time to get into leadership roles and take charge,” Ibrahim Mohammed, new MSA president, said.

This led to two students to step up and finish the semester. Now Mohammed and Lena Salameh are the president and vice president, respectively.

Mohammed is a senior biochemistry major and will graduate this semester. Salameh is a junior chemistry major. Their elected positions will end with the spring semester, so the MSA will be able to go back to their regularly scheduled elections.

Salameh has expressed interest in running for office again next fall for the regular MSA elections.

“It’s to make an easy transition,” Salameh said. “We’re the middlemen of the MSA, so its easiest for us to do it instead of the people who are lower or higher and too attached to it.”

The MSA currently has an average of 10 active members this semester, as a lot of their membership is made up of international students and many have moved home from last year.

“We want to do another Islamic Awareness Week and make it more cultural and with the non-Muslim community,” Salameh said.

There are also some talks between Mohammed and Student Affairs to have a program for the general student body to promote Islamic awareness. Other events in the works include fundraisers, specifically a baklava bake sale to raise money for the group.

“Everybody loves baklava,” Salameh said. “So we’ll do something like that.”

The Muslim faith does not have any spring holidays that the new officers can celebrate, but they will still do everything they can to spread MSA awareness to the Marshall community.

Salameh also expressed interest in hosting an Islamic talent show to spread awareness and raise funds.

No official plans have been made for the talent show or any of the other events Mohammed and Salameh plan on hosting.

Karenann Flouhouse can be contacted at [email protected].