Voting for ASW elections to fill the 2020-21 student board opens Thursday, with students finalizing campaign plans earlier this week. Westminster College students can vote for their preferred candidates through the Canvas website with the survey closing Friday.
The voting process
Voting opens on Canvas Thursday, where students will be given 24 hours to complete a survey voting for their preferred candidates.
Students can either choose from the list of candidates, or they can abstain if they don’t feel the candidates are who they wish to elect. After the 24-hour period, ASW officials will announce the winners at the beginning of next week.
Elected positions will be sworn in during the ASW Senate meeting March 2 — although, the positions are officially handed off at the end of the Spring semester, with the present ASW officials finishing out their terms.
Some officials begin their work as early as the summer, with others not officially performing duties until the beginning of the next academic year.
Students running for elected positions do not run on a ticket — as in, a president-vice president duo. Rather, they vote as individual positions, as an attempt to make the voting process more equitable, according to current ASW President Maggie Regier.
Current ASW officials will begin training newly elected officials as soon as they are sworn in. These newly elected officials will also begin creating their new ASW student government board.
What do each of the branches do?
ASW consists of five branches, with positions that are either elected by the student body or appointed by the elected student leaders.
These five branches include ASW Executive, Events, Clubs, Senate and Judicial. Students will vote for five elected positions among the branches. Those who win the majority votes will appoint the rest of the student board.
The Executive branch
The Executive branch consists of the ASW president and vice president — who are both elected — as well as the executive directors. The branch focuses on overseeing the budget, creative projects and representing student voices.
Students will vote for their preferred nominees of president and vice president. Once chosen, those two positions will appoint the positions of the director of budgeting and accounting as well as the executive creative director.
Also underneath the executive branch is the Creative team made up of creative senior designer, creative designers and the social media coordinator. Those positions are filled by students who apply and are appointed by the executive creative director.
Creative designers are paid hourly depending on the position.
The Events branch
The Events branch consists of the events president, who will appoint two senior coordinators, four events coordinators and an events street team.
The branch is responsible for coordinating, planning and overseeing all student events, activities and programs. The goal is to provide students with a well-rounded co-curricular and social experience, according to the ASW website.
The events president is appointed after student elections, usually by Oliver Anderson, the director of student involvement and orientation. The events president plans and organizes all events on campus.
The Clubs branch
The Clubs branch oversees the function and creation of all approved clubs on campus. Officials within the branch are also responsible for promoting dialogue and collaboration among different clubs.
The Clubs president is elected by the student body during voting. Then, they will appoint four club council members.
These members are appointed for the upcoming school year at the end of Spring semester, and are compensated hourly.
ASW Senate
Senate is the branch responsible for drafting, approving and amending ASW legislation. It acts as the governing structure of ASW.
The Senate branch either passes bills, that are legislation specific to ASW, or members can pass resolutions that express the opinions of student government and the student body to the administration.
The branch is led by the speaker of the senate, who is elected by the student body and then appointed by the other elected senators. There are two senators per academic year and one senator per academic college.
There are a total of 14 Senate positions:
- Senior class senator (2)
- Junior class senator (2)
- Sophomore class senator (2)
- Non-traditional senator (2)
- School of Business senator
- School of Arts & Sciences senator
- School of Nursing/Health Sciences senator
- School of Education senator
First-year senators are elected at the beginning of Fall semester by the incoming class.
Within the Senate branch, there are committees comprised of different senators and ASW representatives. However, these change every year depending on the priorities of student leaders.
Judicial Branch
The Judicial branch reviews and enforces the governing documents that are approved by the Senate. It’s also responsible for reviewing and approving club constitutions at the time of creation.
The head of the branch, the chief justice, is elected by the student body. From there, the student will appoint associate justices who apply through contacting the chief justice.
The chief justice is also responsible for being the administrative coordinator to the ASW president, a mentor to the Senate and the leader of the Judicial Council which meets once a month.
