Colleen Stein

As of Jan. 26, students with the desire to represent and serve as members on the SDSU Student Association Senate began gearing up to run for the 2004 senate races.

Presently 36 students have signed up to undertake a campaign that requires collecting approximately 50 signatures from fellow students within their graduating college.

Besides the coveted positions of the S.A. president, vice president, administrative assistant and finance chair, students can also compete to fill the number of chairs representing their major.

Three officers represent a majority of SDSU’s colleges. The larger ones like Ag and Bio and General Studies offer four spots and the largest of all colleges, Arts and Science, houses five representatives.

“The only colleges where we have seen a shortage in candidates running would be the General Studies college and Graduate college,” explained Mike Whitford, the current Student Affairs administrative assistant.

If colleges remain unrepresented, officers who have run in previous terms or students who were not voted into a seat by their own college still have a chance at serving as an at-large senator to make decisions on behalf of all the colleges.

To run for senate, students must fulfill the university’s requirements of being enrolled as a full-time student and upholding a grade point average of 2.0 or higher. If elected, S.A. members are required to meet once every week and contribute at least two hours of their time in the office working towards the council’s proposed goals.

When asked how manageable a schedule like this is for the average student, Whitford said, “The senate meetings can last anywhere from a half hour to three or four hours long but going to the meetings and attending class full time is not extremely difficult to manage. Yet, to be an effective S.A. member, a student should put serving as a senator pretty high on their list of priorities.”

Jael Trieb of Clear Lake is collecting signatures in an effort to represent Arts and Science.

The sophomore journalism major hopes to boost student involvement in on-campus activities.

“I hope to address increasing participation in student-led organizations, fundraisers and clubs. I want to initiate a wider variation of activities, something to keep people here on the weekends.” Trieb said.

Student signatures must gathered and submitted by Feb. 16 to be admitted into the senate race.

Elections for S.A. officers will take place on March 3 and 4.

For further information on voting or running for Senate, stop by the Student Association office in the University Student Union, room 101 or call 688-5181.