After the weeklong break from school and other duties, the Student Government Association will be preparing for elections, while maintaining its duties to organizations and individuals.

One of the first steps in the process of elections, electing holdover senators, was completed at SGA’s last meeting on March 13.

Holdover senators are elected to add continuity for the next Senate and be a part of the Election Commission. They are not allowed to run for office in the same year they are elected as holdover senator.

Although SGA elected two holdover senators, Sen. Matt Conklin and Sen. Brandon James, the SGA Journal requires three.

The Journal also states that holdover senators must be elected by the last regular meeting of February. Although the selection of the holdover senators was attempted at the March 6 meeting, it did not succeed because too few senators wanted the job.

Going forward, it is not clear what will happen for the holdover senators and the Election Commission, as the Journal does not address any possible repercussions. 

“That is something that we will be changing in the Journal,” SGA President Luis Carbajal said. “This is an issue that we can’t have.”

Before the March 13 meeting, a Senate Review brought charges to Carbajal, Sen. Sein Lengeju and Sen. Muhammet Ceylan for not meeting office hours. Warnings were given. Vice President Olivia Sullivan was accussed of being “hard to approach” and “having a bad attitude.”

Sullivan was reprimanded and was required to make a formal apology to the Senate. Sullivan asked for senators to come to her with any issues instead of spreading rumors. Weekly office meetings will also take place to help avoid workplace tension.

On March 23, SGA approved a resolution recognizing the Hunger Awareness Initiative. Professor Deborah Ballard-Reisch heads the initiative and leads a research seminar to help discover the scope of and spread awareness of food insecurity in WSU’s community.

Ballard-Reisch hopes that this resolution will express student interest in the issue of hunger to the administration of WSU.

At the last meeting, SGA also approved several funding bills:

•$12,000 to Graphic Design Group to attend a summer conference.

•$15,000 to Baja SAE to move to a second build cycle.

•$1,650 to the National Society of Black Engineers for a trip.

•$1,550 for Tornado Alley Press for a project.

•$1,247 for the Asian Student Conference. 

•$3,985 to eight individuals.

PovSolv, a group attempting to help raise $506 for the Color Me Rad 5K run scheduled for May, was denied funding because they were attempting to raise money with their funds. It was also decided that the Color Me Rad run did not directly affect students, SGA should not necessarily help support it.

All bills were passed unanimously with little debate. PovSolv was denied funding unanimously.