Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

SGA news

With Senate elections completed, the Student Government Association’s Executive Cabinet is looking towards yet more on-campus elections, this time for Area Governments.

Nomination papers were released today for students interested in running for an Area Government position, as well as for residential House Councils. Dates for these elections have yet to be announced.

Area Governments are made up of students from the six on-campus residences: Southwest North and Southwest South, Orchard Hill, Sylvan, Central and Northeast. They are responsible for running activities within their own living areas, and are assigned a budget with which to do so.

Area Governments work with the SGA in a variety of ways. One important function is to nominate one person from each area to serve as an elections commissioner for the SGA Elections Council.

This has proven to be an issue in the past, specifically with the Senatorial and Presidential and Trustee elections. This year, for instance, only two of the required five commissioners were hired.

Secretary of Public Policy and Relations Tom Fleenor, however, expressed that he expects to see changes in the future.

“I’ve had people come up to me while I was posting fliers who wanted to be involved and they just didn’t know how,” Fleenor said. “We’re going to be having two information sessions on October 11, one in Mary Lyon [a Northeast dormitory] at 8 p.m. and the other at 9:15 in Van Meter [a Central dormitory].”

The information sessions will be held in an effort to make students aware of Area Government and to find out how to be involved, explained Fleenor. He continued by expressing that, due to student’s lack of information in previous years, Area Governments have suffered.

“I’m confident that when it comes to getting students to vote and be involved will get the five percent needed,” Fleenor said. “We’re going to do more than just flyers this year. We want to get out and talk to people and get the information out.”

Aside from the opening of the Area Government and House Council elections race, members of the SGA will also be tying up lose ends this evening. The last meeting of the SGA Coordinating at 7 p.m. will take place in hopes of ratifying last Friday’s Senate Elections.

The elections, which received the needed five percent student vote, have proved to be successful despite pre-election fears.

“I haven’t heard any complaints and I made it clear prior that if any one has an issue with the elections to bring it forward prior to the Coordinating Council meeting,” Senate Speaker Aaron Saunders said. “We’ve done a 180 degree turn since where we were this time last year and were just getting started.”

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