Voting begins today for
PSG student senators
By Kurt Esposito
Assistant
Campus Editor
Voting for Purdue Student Government's campus-wide
student senate elections begins today.
"We've never had senate elections," said Jen Jacobson,
PSG election secretary.
This marks the first time that senators for PSG's
Student Senate have been chosen based on academic school. Previously
senators for PSG's Student Senate were appointed based on housing. Only
the student body president and vice president were voted on in student
elections.
The switch to voting for senators based on academic
schools comes after the student body voted in April to restructure the
PSG.
Students can vote for candidates in their academic
schools by going to SSINFO on any Purdue-owned computer with Internet
access. Information on the candidates is on PSG's Website — expert.cc.purdue/~psg/
— which can also be accessed through SSINFO. Voting will last through
Wednesday.
Only three schools — liberal arts, science
and management — have races for the two available senate seats.
The School of Education, the graduate students and University Division
all do not have at least two candidates running.
All other schools have two candidates. Jacobson
said all the candidates have to do is vote for themselves and they win.
The deadline to petition to become a candidate
was extended for students hoping to run for the schools that didn't
have enough candidates. Because voting starts today, students can no
longer petition to become a candidate in any school. Jacobson said PSG
will ask those schools to appoint senators to fill in until the next
student senate elections in April.
To address the lack of candidates, PSG will put
together a committee to look at this election. The committee will not
only look at how to make students more aware of the elections, but also
financing for the candidates and the way students petition to become
candidates.
Matt Newton, student body vice president, said
PSG is considering having potential candidates write essays rather than
gathering signatures as they do now.
Jacobson said it is unknown when the winners will
be announced. However, she said, the announcement will not come until
after the candidates have cleaned up their campaign posters that have
been placed around campus.
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