SGA | Photo by Bethany Althauser | The Wright State Guardian
Student Government Association elections are right around the corner with petitions now being open.
The elections timeline
Ryan Ricardo Diaz, policy administrator for SGA and graduate student at Wright State, explained the timeline of elections and how everything will work. A lot of the dates are still up in the air but will be finalized soon, according to Diaz.
“Petitions are before a candidate is accepted as a candidate. They’re supposed to meet a threshold of [about 300] petitions. That being said, we are Wright State, so our student participation in this kind of thing is not that high,” Diaz said.
He explained that students can sign petitions on Engage; one signature is one petition.
Petitions are now open, and according to Diaz, there are two candidates for SGA president. The SGA Constitution and bylaws provide a required timeline for the election process, which has had to be changed and extended. Originally, there was supposed to be a “Meet the Candidates” event on March 28, but it is now going to have to be rescheduled.
“Assuming we can get elections to be the second week of April rather than the first because it’d be kind of weird to have the election start and then the Meet the Candidates [event],” Diaz said.
Last year’s process
Stephanie Buettner is the current SGA president who took over the position in the summer of 2023. She explained how elections worked last year.
“Last year, the way it went was petitions opened after spring break. They were open for two weeks. After petitions closed, the candidates were given Instagrams [by the] Special Elections Committee. They were able to campaign on those Instagrams only and then could campaign around campus for a week after the petitions closed,” Buettner explained in a recent SGA meeting. “After campaigning ended, the week after was elections. There was a week of elections, and then after that, the elections closed and the candidates were announced on the night after.”
SGA constitution
In Article IV of the SGA Constitution, position terms and duration are addressed.
“Each elected and appointed office shall begin on the first day of Summer Term following their election or confirmation, except in situations of vacancy, and terminate the day before the first day of Summer Term of the next academic year,” the Constitution says in section 4.3.
Getting involved
The best ways for students to get involved in elections would be to sign petitions, vote in the upcoming elections or run for an office position themselves.
“Email me or Daniel Palmer, my email is diaz.24@wright.edu, just basically saying, ‘I’m interested in this position,’ and we’ll go ahead and be aware of that,” Diaz said. “We would love to hear from anybody who’s interested. Please apply. The worst that happens is you don’t win.”
It is important that when elections open, students vote. If students do not vote for the candidates that they agree with, then someone could get into office who did not care to do anything with their power. Having an active and involved SGA is important, as they have the power to pass resolutions that make actual change.
