The Student Government Association recently filled two Senator positions that were left vacant when Simmi Singh and Justin Donlan both resigned from the SGA. These spots "needed to be filled quickly in order to better serve the UMBC community," said Sunaina Khandelwal, the speaker of the SGA Senate. Their replacements are Gavin Way and Brittany Carver. Yasmin Karimian, SGA president, said that both Donlan and Singh resigned for personal reasons, and that their resignations were unrelated to a drop in GPA or eligibility issues.

"My experience with the Student Government Association has been extraordinarily rewarding. Ever since my freshman year, I sat in on Senate meetings and was fascinated by the power students have when initiating action and improving their experiences at UMBC," Singh told The Retriever Weekly. While Singh is not holding her position in the Senate this spring, she remains an active member of the SGA. "I am currently working with the SGA Health and Wellness department and UMBC's Division of Student Affairs to oversee the overall well-being and balance of student life on campus. I unfortunately have a conflict this semester with Monday meetings, which is why I resigned," Singh said.

Normally, the position of Senator in the SGA is an elected position, meaning that SGA election applications generally go out in the month of February and are accepted until the week before spring break, followed by elections later in the spring, explained Khandelwal. An election board is chosen by the SGA to run the elections.

For those who do not choose to participate in the elections, the applications to join nominated positions are out once elections are over and are available year-round for anyone interested in joining the SGA at any point during the school year. No specific qualities for any position beyond a desire to make a change at UMBC are emphasized, though nominated positions might require something more specific, depending on the type of position.

However, because Khandelwal wanted to fill the positions as fast as possible, she advertised the vacancies with myUMBC spotlights, an article on UMBC Underground, the SGA list proc, and the student organizations list proc in order to find candidates. In particular, Khandelwal wanted candidates who had some experience at the university as well as a flexible schedule for the remainder of the semester. "Since only two and a half months would be left in office for a Senator that joins in now, I wanted to make sure that they were ready to be wholeheartedly committed...in order to make significant progress and have a meaningful term in their short time in office," Khandelwal said.

The process in this situation was slightly different due to the time constraints, but the process remained essentially the same as most application processes. Khandelwal said that interviewing each candidate would be the only thing she might have done differently. Instead, all the candidates were invited to a Senate meeting in order to observe their contributions and reactions within the group. The Senate then approved the nominated candidates by a two-thirds majority vote as would normally be done.

Both Singh and Khandelwal highly encouraged students to come talk to the SGA or sit in on meetings. The meetings are open to all students, and non-SGA members are strongly encouraged to participate or bring issues of concern to their attention.

SGA applications can be found at http://www.umbc.edu/studentlife/becomealeader/sgaapp.php and the applications for elected positions for SGA 2010-2011 are due Friday, March 12.