Arts senator position re-opened for application during 2016 elections
The only candidate running for the Caine College of the Arts senator position missed a mandatory meeting last week and, due to the Utah State University Student Association’s by-laws, the candidate was dropped and the position re-opened until Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. for re-application.
The former candidate could still re-apply for candidacy.
“We have not had to re-open candidacy since the 2014 College of Natural Resources senator withdrew,” said Madison Maners, the Public Relations and Marketing director for USUSA. “This time around we would like more people to file for candidacy because the more people running, the better.”
The arts senator represents the students of the Caine College of the Arts in USU’s Academic Senate. He or she is responsible for making the concerns of students known to faculty and administrators, and for creating legislation to improve the academic atmosphere.
Samuel Meredith, the current arts senator and a senior at USU, said that the senator assembles a council of arts students and communicates with them, as well as the dean, to keep abreast issues facing students. In addition, the Senator serves the interests of students at the Caine College of the Arts by representing them on various committees such as the University Student Fee Board, the Academic Opportunity Fund Committee and the Classroom Improvement Fund Committee. The senator is also responsible for planning Arts Week each year.
“Last year I was eager to find a new challenge for myself that would help me improve my leadership skills and facilitate personal growth,” Meredith said. “Then, I heard about the elections, and couldn’t think of a better way to achieve that goal than by serving my fellow students and giving back to the college that has already given so much to me.”
The qualifications needed to run for the arts senator include that a student must be a Caine College of the Arts student, they must be in good standing with the university and they must be considered a full-time student.
All senators on the Academic Senate receive a scholarship and monthly stipend during their one-year term.
There are 17 positions that people are running for in the Academic Senate and Executive Council. Elections week will be held Feb. 22 through Feb. 25, with primaries on Monday and Tuesday, and final elections on Wednesday and Thursday.
The USUSA elections committee is in charge of facilitating events, getting people to run and managing everything in between. It is up to the students to vote for the candidates who will be placed in office.
For more information about elections, visit the USUSA webpage at ususa.usu.edu.
— jillian.mccarthy@aggiemail.usu.edu