Rachel Bray and Nick Gertner were recently elected as the new Student Senate president and vice-president on the Coon Rapid’s campus. 

Tracie Clyne, Editor. Additional reporting done by Jerusalem Solomon, Staff Writer. 

This story was originally published as part of The Campus Eye’s 2017 Fall Print Edition.

Elijah Muhammad and Javiv Anglo, the president, and vice president of the Student Senate elected by the student body on March 29, 2017, for the 2017-18 school, year, are not currently leading the Senate. 

Muhammad took over Student Senate this past summer to only be removed shortly after. According to Student Senate’s Constitution, “Membership is open to current tuition and fee-paying students, who maintain a minimum ARCC cumulative GPA or 2.00.” Muhammad said the reason for his removal was due to a “bad grade.”  

Anglo stepped up as vice-president in the end of the Spring 2017 semester, after the removal of the 2016-2017 president, and was supposed to continue his title this school year, but was removed during that same semester. “Javiv was removed because he broke rules of the Student Code of Conduct,” said Nick Gertner, the new vice-president. According to the Senate’s Constitution Article X, Section One, “Any Student Senate member found in violation of the Student Code of Conduct or illegal behavior shall be removed from the Student Senate immediately.” According to a previous Senate member, the reason behind Anglo’s removal was due to his unethical act of drinking alcohol in the hotel room at a Senate conference. Requests for a comment from Anglo went unanswered.  

Since the president and vice-president were both removed, Student Senate held a meeting to vote on a new president and vice-president. Rachel Bray and Gertner, the current president and vice president, were elected on at Student Senate’s second meeting of this current school year on August 30, 2017, by the members of the senate. Bray and Gertner have been involved in Student Senate since the middle of last spring semester. In Article IV, Section Seven of the Senate’s constitution it says “Subsection i. In cases of removal or resignation of officers, a special mid-year election is required. Subsection ii. The election shall take place no sooner than six (6) days after the resignation or dismissal is effective. Subsection iii. If an officer resigns or is removed over a semester break, then the following semester, a special election for the vacant position shall take place during the second official meeting. Subsection iv. Mid-year elections shall be conducted as a fall election.”  

Student Senate has no rules on sending the votes back to the students to elect the replacement president and vice-president. “We would send the vote back to the student, but it just takes too long.”  Gertner said, “Talking to Joyce Traczyk [Senate’s advisor], you have to send out the election, they have to give them [the students] two to three weeks to turn in their paperwork, and then you have to have a meeting with Senate, then like a week after that is the actual election, so by time you are said and done it is five to six weeks you are looking at, which is a long time when you are not here that long.” 

Gertner says, “Rachel and I plan on being on term the whole year.”