Student Government election filing date quickly approaching

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Parthenon file photo

SGA senators are sworn in during the first meeting of senate session 74 in 2016.

Marshall University’s Student Government Association’s filing date for SGA elections will be Feb. 28 at 9 p.m. in the SGA Office in the Memorial Student Center.

Students can file to run as student body president/vice president and senators for each college. All positions are year-long terms.

Fifty-two senate seats will be up for election. Each senator will represent the college they are in, with the number of senators per college varying based on the size of the college.

“We mainly represent the student body at different functions, whether it involves the president or deans of the separate colleges,” Student Body Vice President Emily Kinner said. “For instance, one of my main roles was putting together the Fountain Ceremony.”

Matt Jarvis, Student Body President, said even if a student is not elected, the student can still be involved with SGA and SGA tries not to turn anyone away who wants to be involved. There are still positions that end up being available that are called “at-large seats”.

“If someone wants to be involved in SGA, they will be involved in SGA,” Jarvis said.

“More importantly it’s kind of connecting the dots, it’s getting the right people with the right organizations. If an organization or group needs students, even in the city of Huntington, it’s my job to find the students,” Jarvis said. “The people who want to run for these offices, the people who want to do these things, are doing it because they want to help other students, which is a great thing to do and a great reason to be here. I think whenever we do it, it’s in the spirit of helping others, the spirit of sacrificing our time to do something for other people and I think we have to be able to celebrate that and realize at the end of the day that we’re all here for the same reason.”

All currently enrolled full-time students in good standing with a 2.75 GPA are eligible to run for Senator. All full-time students in good standing with more than 40 completed hours and a 3.0 GPA can apply for president or vice president.

“What it comes down to is just trying to get these people who want to come and be a part of something larger and who want to represent, not only their majors, their classmates, their college, but the careers that come from it,” Jarvis said.

Elections will be held March 14 and 15 and voting will be available online.

Hannah Swartz can be contacted at [email protected].