By Salvatore Ambrosino | August 29, 2022 6:45 p.m.
Southern Editor
On Friday Aug. 26, the SGA executive board handed out Chick-fil-A and “we wear red on Fridays” t-shirts to a line of students wearing red for school spirit, marking the opening of senate applications.
Voting for senators will begin on Engage Sept. 19 and close Sept. 21. All students are eligible to run, but applications close on Engage Sept. 14.
“The role of senator on the SGA board is a great way to make changes and leave a lasting impact on our campus,” ACE President Skippy Paquette said in a statement to The Southern. “It allows you to make an impact not only on our school, but also our student body.”
Elected senators have the opportunity to serve on one of five committees. These committees are service, sustainability, student life, school spirit and diversity, equity and inclusion. The committees are expected to “work together to improve the quality of student life based off student feedback,” according to Florida Southern’s website.
“Each of these committees is responsible for all types of different initiatives ranging from increasing school spirit, to making [the college] more sustainable in every avenue,” Pauquette said.
There are just over 30 senator positions, and the elected retain their seat in SGA until next year, when voting occurs again.
The senate is made up of students representing different areas of study and has members from each academic class at the undergraduate level. Senatorial seats have specializations and vary in number of seats available.
General senator seats include:
Four seats for first-year candidates; one seat for second-year candidates; two seats for second-year greek-affiliated candidates; one seat for third-year senatorial candidates; two seats for greek-affiliated third-year candidates; two seats for fourth-year candidates; two seats for fourth-year greek-affiliated senators.
Specifications narrow: one seat for an intercollegiate athlete senator; a seat for a computer student senator; two seats for honors program senators; three seats for senators of Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise; two seats for the school of education; two seats for candidates from the school of nursing and health sciences; and five senator seats for the school of arts and sciences.
Last year, SGA voted to increase the senatorial stipend to $100 a semester.
