The results of the Student Government Association special election are in—with unopposed candidates Matthew Enriquez and Gregory Massimino-Garcia winning their elections for class of 2020 Vice President and class of 2018 President, respectively. Write-in candidate Lizzie Northey was also elected as Class of 2019 Treasurer.
The special election was held in response to six vacant seats in the SGA, though only these three have been filled thus far, Chief Justice Ally MacLean wrote in an email to the Beacon.
The SGA is now turning its attention to the upcoming general elections. The Fall 2017 General Elections Packet, which contains available positions, requirements, the election timeline, the candidate information form, and the petition to run for office, goes live Friday, Oct. 20.
To be eligible for candidacy a student must meet some general requirements such as being a full-time undergraduate with a minimum 2.7 cumulative GPA, as well as not have any current academic or conduct probations.
The student must also complete a petition to run for office. The petition requires the student to gather fifty signatures from undergraduate students.
Election packets are due at noon on Oct. 27 to the Office of Campus Life. If the student meets all the requirements, they will be considered a candidate and will be notified by the Office of Campus Life, giving students fourteen days to campaign beginning on Nov. 1.
Press Night will be held on Nov. 8, where members from Emerson’s media outlets can listen to speeches prepared by each candidate. On Nov. 15 at 12 a.m., polls will open on vote.emerson.edu and will remain open until Nov. 16 at 11:59 p.m.Election results will be announced on Nov. 17.
A constitutional amendment will also be on the ballot during the general elections. The amendment includes the addition of a student health and wellness commissioner and honors program commissioner, and minor changes to the language of the constitution.
The SGA received updates on Tuesday during their weekly joint session about the work being done by Diane Paxton, director of the Office of Student Accessibility Services, and her colleagues.
Paxton is initiating The Accessibility Advisory Board, chaired by Jim Hoppe, vice president and dean of campus life, and made up of staff and one student. Paxton says the board gives students more voice in the three areas of access: in community living, educations and learning, and technology.
An example of work done by the board, Paxton said, is the accessibility map available during orientation week. Paxton said they work on the map for several years, and they feel it is a pretty big accomplishment. She said it will receive more updates to make it a robust, interactive map of Emerson’s Boston, Los Angeles, and Kasteel Well locations.
“While it wasn’t perfect, it achieved a very exciting goal of getting on the radar of people who have a lot more power and resources to make it into a really robust adaptive accessibility map that will be helpful in a number of instances,” Paxton said.
Deputy News Editor Max Reyes did not edit this article.