By Lauren Beeman

With Student Government Association elections scheduled to take place in just two short weeks, the current student administration is working out the logistics for the Nov. 8-10 election.

The regularly scheduled Tuesday night meeting was pushed back until 9:30 to account for scheduling conflicts.

The current senate members discussed the ballot format for the upcoming elections as well as its efforts to encourage students to run for office positions.

“Invite or encourage people to fill out an application I think that’s the only way we are going to get people to run,” President Gino Grivetti said.

SGA plans to host “A Night of Excellence” event in which the governing body will extend dinner invitations to students they believe are strong leaders and have the potential to serve as strong senators.

“It is a promotion of the future of student involvement of student government,” Senator Sam Deleon said.

Deleon along with Vice-President Mary Argana serve co-chairs for the event.

SGA hopes to extend invitations to professors and administrators as well. Due to the large presence of student-athletes on QU’s campus, SGA also intends to reach out to coaches and encourage them to nominate one player from their team that they believe would make a good senator.

The event is scheduled to take place on Nov. 2 which is the day before election applications are due. The dinner will be hosted in the private dining area of the MDR at 8:00 p.m., and dress for the event will require formal attire.

The governing body also discussed the physical appearance of the ballots. Senator Ernest Baker presented benefits regarding the use of both electronic and paper ballots.

“I feel like electronic ballots would reach out to people that don’t live on campus…Electronic voting also frees up peoples’ (senators) schedules so they don’t have to work at certain tables,” Baker said. “It brings a certain level of officialness if they have a paper ballot.”

After discussion, the senate opted to use both an electronic ballot via Google Forms as well as paper ballots. Students looking to vote in person can find a voting table in the Francis Hall Lobby during election week. SGA will keep a running tally of all voters to ensure that no student votes twice.

SGA elected to have seniors collect and monitor all ballots, and Grivetti stated that he would count the final ballots.

At the start of the meeting, the senate listened to a funding request for $500 from Haiti Connection. Haiti Connection plans to raise around $6,000 for their trip to Haiti in December. The club additionally sponsors Barney’s Night as well as a coffee fundraiser.

SGA elected to award the club the full $500 which lowers the total budget to $3,000 for the remainder of the year.

Upon granting Haiti Connection the funds, Grivetti asked the club members to encourage other campus organizations to participate in philanthropic events.

“We would like to encourage you to consider ways you might be able to partner with other departments on campus…raise your own profile and raise some other teams up and get them engaged in philanthropy as well,” Grivetti said.

Students have the next 30 days to provide commentary regarding the newly ratified SGA Constitution. All suggestions and inquires may be sent to sga@quincy.edu.