The Student Government Association (SGA) passed a long-talked about resolution on Monday to get rid of the requirement stating that students must have one semester of experience in SGA to run for President or Vice President. While the vote was officially a tie, with five senators voting in favor and five against, the bill requires a simple majority to pass, and in the event of a tie, the Vice President is looked upon to serve as the tie breaker. Vice president Grace Tyler Frank-Rempel voted in favor of the bill and it passed. Senator Dennis McDermott, who has historically been against the bill, noted that a singular semester is the “least” that the senate could require to train a possible candidate on how meetings are run and all of the surrounding processes. Members of the senate who spoke out in favor of the bill include President Pro-Tempore Bryce Hayzlett and President Jake Berlin, who noted that the way to make SGA the most accessible to the students is by eliminating the SGA service requirement. Parliamentarian Jess Wrzosek also noted that as members of SGA, it was up to the student government to trust the student body to vote for an adequate candidate. 

In an executive cabinet meeting held after the legislative body meeting, the cabinet discussed the logistics of how the SGA debate for this week’s election are going to be held in light of the cancellation of all in-person interaction at Point Park. Some possible options included the use of Twitch, Instagram Live, Twitter debates, and Zoom meetings. In the end, it was decided that the debates would be held in a Zoom meeting that would then be screen-recorded and livestreamed to an SGA YouTube channel where other students may tune in to watch the debates. The moderator for the debates this year will be Alex Popichak, a 2018 Point Park graduate and SGA alumnus. The debates are scheduled to take place on Wednesday, April 1 at 9 p.m., the night before voting opens.