So how ‘bout that democratic process?

Pending the approval and adoption, the SGA minutes from March 21 at the next SGA meeting, they were unavailable to The Penn at the time of this writing.

From Section 7.01 of the Student Government Association bylaws: "The SGA President, SGA Vice-President, members of the Student Co-op Board of Directors, and thirty-six (36) SGA Senators shall be elected in a university wide election each Spring semester."

And from Section 4.08 of the SGA constitution: "The President's, Vice-President's, Rules Committee Chairperson's, Secretary's, and Treasurer's terms shall be for one year beginning at the end of the last meeting of the prior SGA at which they were elected."

However, it seems that if current sentiments prevail, SGA President David Bivens and SGA Vice-President Andrew Longacre would forego re-election procedures and extend the length of their terms of office by a six-month period.

While actions have not yet been taken to formally adopt this motion, a preliminary vote was held. During this vote, the motion to allow the term extension was affirmed.

The passing of such an amendment would effectively prevent

interested parties from running against the incumbent president and vice-president for the upcoming school year during SGA elections, which, according to SGA bylaws, must open on the first Wednesday of April. All other officers are to be elected on this day, even if the president and vice-president are not.

It must be noted that candidacy declarations were due, according to SGA bylaws, by Feb. 1 – and there were possible opposing candidates. Petitions for these candidates were due yesterday, and it is as yet unknown if the possible candidates submitted the required amount of signatures.

It stands that, in theory, Bivens and Longacre could run for re-election to their present offices, so long as they met the qualifications. The qualifications for the office of President and Vice-President do not prohibit current officers from running for another term, barring certain activities, which, according to the SGA constitution, include "internships, student teaching, and graduation."

Permitting a term extension could create a problem for Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates when the actual election occurs. Will these new officers only be permitted to hold office for six months, or will the SGA ammend both its constitution and bylaws to change the term of office from the school year to the calendar year?

If the outcome is the former, is it fair to limit these new officers, who may be ineligible to run for office in the following year, to a shorter term than has been afforded previous administrations?

According to The HawkEye, the IUP journalism news blog, Bivens said this extension is needed for improved administration transitions. If this is the case, would it not mean that elections must be held far prior to the end of this six-month term extension? Because if the new President and Vice-President are not named until the last few weeks of next semester, will that transition be any different from or an improvement on an administration change that takes place over the course of April and May?

Section 10.02 of the SGA bylaws has provisions for "transitional training." If this period of training for new officers was sufficient in the past, what extenuating circumstances prevent it from being enough for this administration?

These questions need to be answered. Solid guidelines for the transition need to be presented, and legitimate reasoning for extending the term of office needs to be verified. If they are not, those who are supposed to be elected democratically and democratically serve as the voice of the students are only circumventing the democratic process and cheating their constituents, the students, out of a fair election.