The race for Student Association president may consist of three candidates rather than the four originally running for the position.
Elections commissioner Spencer Broocks declared one presidential candidate, senior landscape architecture major Jeremy Sherman, ineligible to run Tuesday, he said. The SA Constitution says candidates for president must be enrolled in MSU for the two semesters previous to seeking election, but Sherman began his tenure at the school in fall 2005 and has only attended one previous semester, he said.
Sherman has appealed the decision to the Elections Court, which will meet at 3 p.m. today to decide the case, Broocks said.
Mississippi State University Student Association elections will be held Feb. 21.
For the first time, six of Mississippi’s eight public four-year universities-MSU, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi University for Women, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi-will hold student government elections on the same day.
The synchronism is the product of the Student Body President’s Council, a group composed of the student body presidents of all eight of Mississippi’s public four-year universities, SA attorney general Seth Robbins said.
“We all kind of figured that if we had elections on the same day, we could basically get some press out,” he said.
Robbins also said he hopes the remaining two universities, Alcorn State University and Mississippi Valley State University, will join in soon.
“Basically, the whole idea of it was to get everybody more unified,” he said, in hopes that the group could create a Mississippi Student Association.
Five SA executive officer positions are up for grabs, including president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and attorney general.
The president’s biggest job is to represent students to city officials, state officials and university administrators every day, SA President Jon David Cole said.
“On top of that there’s the fact that I’ve got to manage and run a 16,000-student organization every day of the week,” he said.
He said that although he had some idea of the stress involved in the job when he ran for the office, he didn’t realize just how stressful it would be. “You’ve constantly got to be an advocate for students. You can never, ever not think through those lenses,” he said.
SA vice president Cory Carter said part of his job is to attend executive officer meetings and organize and attend Senate meetings. “It’s a lot of planning meetings,” he said.
One challenge Carter faces is the fact that the students who held his position before him have graduated, so he has no one to ask when he needs advice on how to do something, he said. “Lots of times when you’re trying to plan the Senate retreat or plan the State of the SA next week, there’s nothing to go on,” he said.
He said he also had to become familiar with parliamentary procedure. “You want to keep the meetings being formal but not to formal,” he said.
Emily Stone, the current SA secretary, said her most visible duties include taking roll and minutes at cabinet, Senate and executive officer meetings. She also has to keep people within and without the SA up to date on what’s going on in the group.
One thing she’s had to learn is how to take minutes well, she said. “I’ve learned a lot, that’s for sure.”
The treasurer’s job includes approving expenditures and keeping track of how much money goes into and out of the SA, treasurer Matt Vitart said.
Robbins said the SA attorney general has three basic roles.
One is to serve as a constitutional adviser to the SA president, he said.
A second is to serve on several university committees, such as committees dealing with student discipline and academic honesty, Robbins said. “That’s kind of challenging because that takes up a lot of time,” he said.
The third duty is bringing ideas of how to improve MSU to the SA, he said.
“In my opinion, every Student Association officer needs to bring new things to the table,” he said.
Executive officer debates will be held Feb. 15.