By Shea Stine

In its second meeting of the semester, Quincy University’s Student Government Association unveiled more details surrounding its new representative overhaul.

Acting President Lauren Beeman opened the meeting by asking for any feedback on the proposed representation changes announced in the Jan. 24 SGA meeting.

When no current representatives raised objections, Beeman and Vice President of Treasury Alex Tedrow began to unveil their plan.

There will be four senate representatives per class. The class representatives will be chosen by members of their own class. The presidential and vice presidential candidates will have to run as part of a ticket and will be elected by a popular vote from all students. Candidates will be allowed to run for both their own class’ senate as well as president or vice president. Candidates will have to fill out an application, which has not yet been finalized, in order to run.

President Lauren Beeman and Vice President of Treasury Alex Tedrow addressing students during the Feb. 7 SGA meeting

Requirements students must meet to run have not been finalized, but Beeman and Tedrow suggested that candidates must have at least a 3.2 GPA, be in good standing with community standards and have at least two faculty references. Faculty advisor Christine Tracy put forth a suggestion for a new reference sheet that would be included in the application to run.

Applications will be due March 3. Beeman, Tedrow and Tracy all said that the application should be finalized by the next SGA meeting Feb. 21. After discussing ways to submit applications, both representatives and students at the meeting agreed that a Google doc would be the best way to submit.

Once the applications have been approved, the students will have two weeks to campaign before the elections are held March 27-31.

Under the new representation system, campus clubs and organizations will not have to be present at every SGA meeting, but meetings will still be open to students who want to attend.

Dean of Students and Academic Success Christine Tracy listens to students in between writing proposals down at the SGA meeting Feb. 7

A theme of the meeting among all in attendance was the need to get more student involvement.

“We want to get the students’ confidence,” Tedrow said. “This is their way to communicate with faculty and the administration. We are the liason.”

Vice President of Marketing Annie Arment passed around a sheet to all students at the meeting who are interested in either helping or giving feedback to the Campus Activities Board. Students can contact Arment at armenan@quincy.edu for more information about CAB.

“I’d love to get as many people as possible involved,” Arment said. “We have our final budget, so we’re ready to start using it. We want students involved in the decision process.”

Despite all the restructuring, SGA still has almost all of its budgeted money. Tracy urged students and representatives to come up with ideas for how the SGA should spend its money.

Faculty advisor John Doctor is interested to see the future of SGA and the upcoming elections.

“Anybody who runs for president or senate should want to be the voice of students and not do it as something for their resume,” he said. “The students who run should be ready to be held accountable, and the students should choose people who will fight for them. It’s also a great way for students to learn leadership.”

Doctor said that students should look closely at candidates’ applications to see why they want to represent their fellow classmates. In addition, QU Media will be holding debates prior to the elections to give candidates an opportunity to showcase why they are a good choice for SGA.

Although more details have come to light, the current leadership still has a lot of work in front of them.

“The executive team will be meeting a few times to iron out details,” Tredow said. “We want to find a way to make the overall format more efficient, fair and better for students. We need better marketing to get students engaged. We have our dates for everything, but we need to finalize election process and campaign rules.”

In addition, the executive team will begin the process of redoing the SGA constitution to reflect the changes that are happening. Tedrow said they will put the frame of the new constitution together before elections happen and will work with newly elected representatives to finish it after elections.

The next SGA meeting will be held on Feb. 21 at 9 p.m. in Francis Hall room 334.