This semester, one Student Government Association (SGA) senator held two voting positions, which is against policy. However, SGA said it has found a solution.
“When the time came to vote, they called me twice. I had to answer twice,” said Madeleine Faircloth, the class of 2017 secretary and Campus Activities Board (CAB) representative.
SGA has 23 voting senators: 10 senators-at-large, five “big five” senators (The Bona Venture, Intramurals, WSBU-The Buzz, Campus Activities Board and the Medical Emergency Response Team) and eight class senators.
In previous The Bona Venture coverage, Rose Brown, SGA president, said Faircloth held both positions because the CAB Constitution required her to be the CAB representative. Abby Cohen, CAB advisor, said it was listed in Faircloth’s job description, not the constitution.
Faircloth is the co-public relations chair in CAB, sharing the title with Jackie Roberts. Roberts is also station manager at The Buzz.
“As of now, we are still looking into the situation. We did check with Maddie [Faircloth] about the seat in both CAB and SGA, and it was to both her and my understanding that she was the person to sit on both. Before the vote, we thought we had figured the situation out,” Brown said. “We are still waiting on receiving the job descriptions from CAB to review if this is true or not. The executive board [of SGA] was not aware of the fact that she was a co-chair.”
Faircloth said the issue was addressed to her by SGA at the beginning of the semester, but nothing changed after the conversation.
“SGA has been approached, and it seems to be a [SGA] executive board confusion with the constitution that was always overlooked,” Faircloth said. “I would understand bringing me into it if I was the deciding vote, but I wasn’t. Embrace it Africa was going to win either way. I think it’s more just an example of where the SGA Constitution needs work, not corrupt voting systems.”
Brown said SGA will revise its constitution in January, a process that happens once every three years.
Next semester, Roberts will represent CAB; she will no longer represent The Buzz.
gordonhr13@bonaventure.edu
