With the elections for Pace University’s Student Government Association (SGA)’s executive positions for the 2020-21 academic year quickly approaching, it is important for students to know exactly what positions they can run for and what each position is responsible for. SGA currently has five student executive positions:

The SGA President is in charge of overseeing and advising SGA as a whole and representing the organization at any and all legislative meetings conducted by the university. If they so choose, they can call a Student Council meeting once every month of each semester, and they as a non-voting member and advisor to all standing student committees.

The Executive Vice President (EVP) acts as a sort of enforcer in SGA and is in charge of enforcing all of the organization’s disciplinary and policy functions, assisting new organizations to get recognized and possibly funded and presiding over all legislative meetings. If they so choose, they can appoint a Parliamentarian to assist them with these duties during Senate meetings. If the SGA president should resign or be removed from their position, the Executive Vice President shall assume the duties of the president.

The Vice President of Finance acts as SGA’s chief financial officer and is in charge of all financial matters within it, presiding over and cooperating alongside the Finance Committee to manage the student activity fee budget and creating bylaws to ensure that the committee runs transparently and efficiently. If they so choose, they can cease any spending or financial processes from SGA or  in order to ensure financial stability or deny any organization’s budget or request for funding.

The Vice President of Administration is responsible for overseeing all of SGA’s administrative and organizational duties, recording the length of all SGA executive and legislative meetings and publishing important SGA news and documents and making them available to the general undergraduate community. At the beginning of SGA’s fiscal year, they are given a budget of two percent of the SGA’s entire budget to help with any administrative needs that the organization might need.

The Vice President of Programming, or Student Director of Programming, oversees all of the organization’s programming-related functions and works with other student organizations to help create new and unique events that will help serve the entire undergraduate population. To help them properly execute this duties, they are given a 25 percent of SGA’s entire budget at the beginning of the fiscal year. Even though they are an executive position in SGA, they do not regularly participate in the organization’s regular executive operations.

In order to run for these positions later on in the semester, students must meet certain criteria:

They must be enrolled as a full-time undergraduate and have completed at least 24 credits at Pace cannot have any sort of disciplinary sanction given by the university at the time that they apply. They must have a minimum Quality Point Average (QPA) of 2.75 and must have been a member of at least one other university-recognized organization or team for at least two semesters (the semester that the SGA election happens can count as the second semester). For the students who are applying for president cannot be an e-board member of any student org (president, senator, treasurer, etc.)

According to Suede Graham, Coordinator for Pleasantville’s Student Development and Campus Activities, students who want to advocate for the needs of the student body and make a positive impact within their campus community should consider running for these positions.

“Someone who is hardworking, persistent, empathetic and able to work well with a team would bring a lot to SGA, and students who feel they can fulfill those duties and responsibilities should definitely run,” Graham said.

The election packets are now available on OrgSync for students that are interested and the packets are due to Shawn Livingston for approval on March 1. The final list of candidates that students can choose from will be available on March 5. The polls will open on Monday, March 30 at 11 am and will close on Friday, April 3 at 5 pm. The new e-board will be sworn in on April 20.

Information on the responsibilities of SGA executive positions and the deadline dates provided by Suede Graham and Shawn Livingston.