Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

There are 42 positions to be elected; President, Vice President, 20 positions are reserved for college representative seats and the remaining are at-large seats.

Yes, however some seats are reserved and will never appear on the annual ballot.

Six seats are reserved for students in their first semester at GVSU. They will be filled by an application and interview process administered by Student Senate in August/September annually.

One seat is held for a representative from the Graduate Student Association and one seat is held for an international student in coordination with the Padnos International Center; these seats are filled according to the Student Senate bylaws.

No, all terms are one academic year. Current student senators may run for re-election.

Yes. The elections process changed in 2024 and the President and Vice President are directly voted on by the student body.  The remaining Student Senate Cabinet members are elected by the Student Senate body after the general elections of senators take place.

Yes, all elected senators will serve on one of the four standing committees (Public Relations, Advocacy, Policy, Events). Assignments are made by the Cabinet after senators express which committees they are interested in. The Allocations Committee is made up of Senators from the four other committees.

Candidate platform statements will be printed in the Lanthorn and are also available on this website during the election cycle.

Due to limited space, platform statements are encouraged to be succinct and to the point. The Elections Commission will provide specific guidance on word count.

Yes, voting for Student Senate elections will be open from Monday, March 17 at 8 a.m. - Monday, March 24 at 5 p.m. During this period, all GVSU students can vote once for the candidates of their choice following the ballot guidelines.

No, Student Senate elections are nonpartisan. We encourage students to look through the platforms of all candidates to find those that they support.

All elected student senators will be invited to attend two meetings in the Winter 2025 semester (April 3 and April 10). Nominations for Cabinet will occur on April 3 and elections for Cabinet will occur on April 10. The term of senators for the 2025-2026 academic year ends in April of 2026.

What is the Elections Commission?

The Elections Commission is comprised of Student Senators that are not running for re-election. This year, the group is chaired by President Quinten Proctor, Allocations Chair Nancy Boyd, and Vice President Paris Lawson. They make decisions based on alleged violations of the Campaign Rules & Regulations. They can be contacted at senates@gvsu.edu.



Page last modified January 20, 2025