ASG makes election changes due to COVID-19

The President and VP positions will be voted on April 16 and 17

Mikaela Foehr / News Editor / The USD Vista

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to make routine aspects of campus life difficult and complicated. With the school entirely moved online, the upcoming Associated Student Government campaigns will also be conducted virtually, which has prompted further electoral changes. 

The ASG Elections Committee decided to only hold spring elections for the position of President and Vice President. This pushes back all senator positions to the fall election cycle that is traditionally only for first-year senator positions. 

This decision was announced in a March 23 email from Eniya Pendleton, ASG Elections Chairperson and Chief Justice. In the email, Pendleton explained that the appointing powers of the President and Vice President would give the new ASG body a base to build on until the fall.

“By allowing these two positions to be filled we can then appoint the other Executive Board positions, as well as appoint the Judicial Branch, thus allowing two-thirds of our government to be up and running by the end of the semester,” Pendleton said. 

In a later interview, Pendleton gave a more detailed explanation to this decision. She highlighted two concerns that she, and other members of ASG, had about online senator elections. First, student knowledge and involvement were of concern, and second, the ability of the remotely elected senate body to select a Speaker of the Senate over a Zoom meeting.

“We found that introducing this new and somewhat complicated process of having the Speaker chosen by senators would ultimately be too difficult to effectively do over Zoom,” Pendleton said. “I could not, in good faith, put 30 people, who likely didn’t know each other, on a Zoom call together and have them choose such an important position.”

Despite these postponements, Pendleton is not overly concerned with the prospect of establishing the legislative branch during the first month of the 2020-2021 academic year. This is because the ASG Senate normally begins to meet in October, after the first-year senator elections are finished. 

However, the one position that may find trouble, according to Pendleton, is the Speaker of the Senate. This position is responsible for properly conducting each ASG Senate meeting, and this requires them to know many technical proceedings. 

“That individual will have to do extra work to catch up and be as informed and well prepared as a good Speaker should be,” Pendleton said. “I am optimistic that whomever the Speaker is, they will be dedicated to getting up to speed as quickly as possible.”

Electing the entirety of the senate body in the fall also raises questions of whether the senators will be prepared enough to govern once meetings begin in October. This concern stems from senate challenges during this past year, where open criticism toward senators being unprepared and apathetic in their roles was not unusual. 

Pendleton is again optimistic that ASG has taken this past year as a learning experience and will come back in the fall more prepared to train new senators. 

“Hopefully, the combination of more targeted, and perhaps more frequent, trainings, along with a more experienced group will help mitigate the adjustment period,” Pendleton said, “But I cannot say that that (adjustment) period will not happen.”

During this election cycle, ASG, according to Pendleton, is focusing on getting students informed. Their information campaigns have consisted of emailed information and information posted on their Instagram page. Additionally, in lieu of candidates being able to put up flyers on campus, ASG has decided to post candidates on their Instagram to attempt to help them get their names out to students. 

“Due to everything being remote, we understand that students’ inboxes are already flooded with emails so we don’t want to bombard them,” Pendleton said. “However, we still need to email them enough that they know elections are going on and they know who the candidates are.”

There will be a debate for both President and Vice President positions via Zoom on April 15, although the time is still being set. According to Pendleton, students will have access to the debate. Following that debate, students may vote through their MySanDiego portal from April 16-17.