The Southern Utah University Student Association discussed election bylaws at their weekly meeting held over Zoom on Tuesday.
Chief Justice Colton Smith presented the senate with adjustments to the written election bylaws made by him and the Michael O. Leavitt Center for for Politics and Public Service for the SUUSA campaign process. These modifications will affect those planning to run for a SUUSA position in next semester’s election.
The bylaws now include a definition section to clarify the meaning of important words used throughout the document.
Smith and the Leavitt Center also added a section about prohibiting endorsements between candidates. This means that candidates can no longer campaign “with” someone who is running for a different position.
“It was doing more bad than good to have parties in elections,” Smith said.
Another modification is the prohibition of candidates who make it to the general election making offers to candidates who did not win the primary election in exchange for endorsement.
Vice President of Academics Abbie Jacobsen suggested specifying all who cannot give endorsements, such as previous SUUSA members.
Vice President of Finance Alyssa Sutton also suggested adding guidelines on the process of how to drop out of the race. Several candidates dropped out early during the election in the spring of this year which created a lot of confusion, according to Sutton.
Smith said he will revise the bylaws to include these suggestions.
The primary election for next year’s SUUSA positions is currently scheduled for March 15-19 and the general election is scheduled for March 22-26.
The senate passed a motion to table the discussion on the election bylaws to return to at a future meeting.
Jacobsen gave an update on the bill passed in last week’s meeting to create a Canvas module with mental health resources. The module was created by the Health & Wellness Center, Counseling and Psychological Services and SUU’s Care and Support Team.
The module will be published on all SUU students’ Canvas dashboard by Thanksgiving and will be a reference for “what to do when you’re feeling overwhelmed…., anxious…. [and] lonely,” according to Jacobsen.
SUUSA has three more senate meetings scheduled for this semester, all of which will take place over Zoom.
Story by: Tori Jensen
reporter@suunews.net
Photo by: Tori Jensen
