Board members discussed the upcoming elections for student boards at last night's meeting of the Saint Mary's Student Government Association (SGA).
Jenny Hoffman, student body president, said elections will be held the weeks before and after spring break. Students will be voting for the SGA various offices including student body officers and class officers.
In preparation for the elections, the board reviewed the bylaws for running for office. In the past the policy had been that students must have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 to run for office.
"The average GPA at Saint Mary is significantly higher," Hoffman said. "It is as if this policy is saying that it is okay for our officers and representatives to be below average."
Hoffman also said it was a requirement that the candidate has never been on academic probation. Emily Skittish, the SGA executive secretary, had requested the information from the college and found the average GPA in most departments was a 3.3.
After discussing the issue, the SGA board passed a motion to raise the requirement. The board voted unanimously to raise the minimum GPA to 3.0.
"This is important because these positions takes up a lot of an elected student's time," Megan Griffin, student body vice president said. "It is very common that after being
elected, their GPA will drop a little, so they should have a higher beginning point so they won't fall under academic probation."
Whether or not this higher standard affects the number of students who will be running cannot be known before the pre-election meetings start. Allison Meeks, the elections commissioner, is organizing informational meetings about running for office, which will take place within the next two weeks.
Meeks said there would be flyers around campus next week, giving dates and times to interested students. At these meetings, students will be informed of election policies and what the process will entail.
