Vanderbilt Student Government (VSG) Senate passed a resolution Wednesday to move the VSG election timeline up, with the general election now being held before Spring Break.
The bill, titled “Shifting Forward the Timeline of the VSG Presidential and Vice Presidential Election,” mandates that the Candidate Declaration Meeting for interested presidential and vice presidential candidates must be held three weeks before Spring Break. This moves the campaign period to start two Mondays before Spring Break.
The bill goes into effect for next school year’s election. It passed the Senate unanimously, VSG President Tariq Issa said.
The bill states, “VSG’s current election timeline prevents an effective turnover and places an excessive burden on the previous year’s Executive Board along with the incoming Executive Board, especially the President and Vice President.”
The bill notes other issues in regard to the current timeline, which currently extends from the two weeks prior to Spring break through the two weeks after Spring Break. These include depriving the newly elected leaders of enough time to effectively appoint their new staff, meet with campus leaders, and begin their initiatives. Furthermore, it cuts short the time for new Committee Chairs to meet with their predecessors and starting to execute their initiatives, the bill says.
The sentiment of the bill was inspired by other organizations such as the Multicultural Leadership Council which have already turned over to their new executive staff.
“Now, the new president has two months to really learn from the old president on what’s going on, how to run the whole organization, how to appoint all of their officials,” Issa said.
