Students elect two Freshmen to join SGA in a special January election
Image: Courtesy of SGA
Freshman Senator Lillian Perry Hicks
January 29, 2016
Freshman Catie Byrd was elected Senator at Large.
Freshman Senator Lillian Perry Hicks
In the Student Government Association (SGA) special elections, that began Jan. 20, two senate seats were up for grabs.
“We had two senators step down from their position for various reasons. This usually happens because of a class conflict with senate time, a personal reason, etc,” Elizabeth McKay, the chairperson for the Public Relations and Elections committee, said in an email.
Eight freshmen ran for the one open Freshman Senator seat, vacated by Jesus Robinson, while five students of various classes ran for the open Senator at Large position previously held by David Boggs.
After a few days full of sidewalk chalk endorsements, Facebook posts and homemade posters in the Connell Students Center, the winners were announced Jan. 21 at 5 p.m. Lillian Perry Hicks won the Freshman Senator seat, and Catie Byrd, also a freshman, won the Senator At Large position.
The first was a run-of-the-mill race. The second came as a surprise to some because freshmen aren’t usually get elected for Senator At Large seats since they’re voted on by the entire campus.
Michael Smith, a sophomore senator and law and public policy major, said that Byrd made a smart move.
“Instead of entering the freshman senator election and further splitting the vote among the freshmen class, (Byrd) was able to gain support from her fellow freshmen by giving them one candidate from their own class to vote for in the Senator-At-Large race,” he said in a Facebook message. “It was a bold and, quite frankly, impressive strategy.”
See a recap of SGA’s first Senate of the year on page 2.
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