Student Government Association senator elections on-schedule, voting to begin mid-April

Election season is coming for students at Shippensburg University, despite the lack of student presence on campus. Voting for the 2020-2021 Student Government Association (SGA) senators will begin April 6.

Issac Dietrich, SGA vice president of internal affairs, sent an email to SU students March 25 about the senator elections.

Even though students will not be on campus, those who would like to be on the ballot can fill out the official petition attached to the email. Petitions are due April 8 by 4 p.m. and should be emailed to sgavpinternal@ship.edu.

Petitions were originally due April 1, however SGA extended the application period, noting the difficult transition to online learning.

The email included the rules and regulations of the election and the available senator positions with the duties of each position listed. The senator positions are for student life senators, academic senators and class senators.

Student life senators will represent various groups of students like commuters, non-traditional students, greek life and many other groups. Academic senators serve as liaisons between each college and SGA, and class senators serve as the voices for their graduating class.

“This is a great opportunity for you to find a leadership role, advocate for students, and bring change to Shippensburg University,” Dietrich said in the email. “We hope that you are interested in joining the SGA, and that you can help us create impactful change on our campus.”

Dietrich said since students will not be on campus, those campaigning are presented with an interesting challenge.

While voting is usually held online, candidates will not have the opportunity to campaign on-campus.

The number of student-voter turnout will likely be lower than normal because students are off campus, he said. Dietrich expects most campaigning will be done online and through one-on-one conversations to overcome this obstacle.

SGA senator elections begin Monday, April 13 at 8 a.m. and wrap up on Thursday, April 16 at 4 p.m. SU students can vote online through Ship Link – Campus Groups.