Students will be able to cast their votes in the upcoming Student Senate election for vacant positons of all class years via a new organizational and club management platform, OrgSync.

“OrgcSync allows for all students to log on with their Gateway username and password and cast their ballot.  In previous years, we’ve used the Qualtrics survey software through Institutional Research to conduct balloting.  The ballot will be on the homepage of the Dickinson portal, and voting will be as easy as logging on, selecting your candidates and submitting your ballot.”

The polls will open at 12:01 a.m. on Sept. 12 and will close at 11:59 p.m.

The vacant positions are first-year Class President, first-year Enrollment and Student Life Committee (ESLC) Senator, eight first-year Class Senators, sophomore ESLC Senator, one sophomore Senator, junior Class President, junior ESLC Senator, four junior Class Senators and four senior Class Senators, according to the Dickinson College website.

It is currently impossible for students studying abroad to run for a presidency on senate, says Savanna Riley ’17, Student Senate President, since student presidents must be at Dickinson for the full year. This has proven a hurdle for the junior class, whose study-abroad students are ineligible to run.

It’s “a great thing [that] students want to go abroad, so I’m not complaining,” maintains Riley. “[The Student Senate] will find someone [to fill the position].”

Riley also explained that the structure of Senate is changing slightly. Starting this year, there will now be only six senators instead of eight representing the sophomore, junior and senior classes. First-years will continue to have eight representatives.

“Ian [Hower] ’16 and Ben Kaufman ’16 went to a summit and realized proportionally [Dickinson has] a lot of senators for our number of students in comparison to other schools.” Riley explained. The number of first-year senators remains unchanged in an effort to encourage the class to “be involved.”  Additionally, first-years are expected to have “a lot to say,” considering they are new to the campus, explains Riley.

All students will receive an email instructing them on how to vote using OrgSync, according to Philip Morabito ’17, Director of PR and Marketing for Student Senate.  Students will need to enter their Gateway username and password into the platform, which will soon be accessible from the Gateway homepage.

Riley hopes that this upcoming election will bring “a lot of diversity and commitment” to Student Senate, as well as students who have a “genuine desire to be a part of the process”.

“[Being a member of Senate] is a learning process for everyone, myself included,” said Riley.