2 BEHREND BEACON
October 1, 2010
www.thebehrendbeacon.com
SGA left with six vacancies after fall elections
CONNOR SATTELY
editor-in-chief
After two unexpected va
cancies and a dismal fall
election, Penn State
Behrend Student Govern
ment Association (SGA) is
once again short-handed to
begin the year. Almost a
quarter of the total seats
are empty.
The vacancies, which are
common after SGA fall
elections, are prompting
SGA President Stephen
Burger to re-evaluate the
current election system.
After fall elections - in
which four students were
elected - six vacancies still
remain on the senate.
Four of those vacancies
are freshmen positions,
which means that Lacy
Smiesko, who was elected
last week, is the only fresh
man on SGA.
Two of the other vacan
cies are upperclassmen po
sitions. One senator -
Aharon Robinson - re
signed in this week's meet
ing, citing classes and
other commitments as his
reason for leaving.
Another senator, sopho
more Ryan Frankowski,
was removed from his po
sition for not performing
duties expected of a sena
tor, including office hours
and attending meetings,
according to Burger.
These vacancies, which
represent nearly a quarter
of SGA's total voting mem
bers, will be filled through
out the semester. They will
be largely taken care of
through "in-house elec
tions," which involves a
Interested in getting
involved with SGA?
Contact SGA President
Stephen Burger at
srbsl2s@psu.edu.
Meetings are Wednesday
at 5:30 in Reed 114.
0./k
e f ,e#rir
brief speech by a candidate
and a vote of present mem
bers at any Wednesday
meeting of SGA.
However, it is the inabil
ity to fill the freshmen seats
that has Burger taking a
second look at the system
in place.
"I think it's more a failing
of the system than of any
SGA," he says. "It's a very
outgoing, gung-ho fresh
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61 . 349 1
man who wants to come to
a new place, and within a
few weeks pick up an elec
tion packet, campaign, and
run for a position on gov
ernment.
"In the past four or five
years, there have always
been these vacancies."
According to the SGA
Constitution, available on
OrgSync, any vacancies
left over after fall elections
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At this point, though, the
SGA is not hindered by the
vacancies in any of its nor
mal functions. It requires
quorum - a certain per
centage of voting members
- to take any action during
meetings. The vacancies do
not count towards the total
count of members, though.
The fall elections, too,
elicited very little student
involvement. Only 160 total
votes were cast, and the
highest vote-receivers re
ceived only 49% of the total
vote.
While this is common for
fall elections, Burger says it
points to flaws in the sys
tem that must be corrected.
Burger says that one of
SGA's top goals for the
year is to have contested
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elections. He hopes to have
at least two students run
for each executive board
position and each of the
eight senator positions that
open in spring.
For the last two years,
senatorial spring races
have been contested, while
the President and Vice
President positions have
not been contested for sev
eral years.
84.
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