Kat Rogers
Staff Writer
The Student Government Association has passed a resolution presented by Darunda “D” Wilkins, director of representation and a senior business major from Montgomery, to change the voting and election process of the homecoming queen and court.
The resolution alters the homecoming election process, as well as who is eligible to run. There will now be two courts — one for queen nominees and one for maid nominees.
Those nominated for queen must be a senior having completed 90 credit hours and a minimum 2.75 GPA. Maid court nominees must have between 60-89 hours and a 2.75 GPA.
Queen candidates will go through an interview process one week before the popular election. The interview panel will then choose the top 10 women to be put into the popular election. The court of five will then be announced on Wednesday, Oct. 5.
Maid nominees, however, will all be voted on in the popular election. From that, the top five candidates will be interviewed. Based on the combined interview score and popular vote results, the top three women will be announced the same day as the queen.
Another major change in the election process is who can promote each candidate. A candidate can only be endorsed by the organization that nominated her, not each organization that she participates in.
Rachel Carter, a sophomore computer science major from Athens, said she thinks the resolution will allow greater representation.
“I think the homecoming bill is going to be great for Troy, extending representation to other students on Troy’s campus,” Carter said.
Other organizations that the nominee is involved in cannot promote her as their own candidate beyond that organization’s private social media page.
This is to give women from other organizations a chance to be fairly represented.
Max Herman, a senior hospitality management major from Panama City Beach, Florida, said he thinks this new system will be beneficial.
“I think it’s going to give a lot more opportunities to a lot more girls, not just for the queens, but with the new addition of the maids,” Herman said. “I think the new system to publicize girls is going to be really good, because it will make for a broader opportunity for more girls. I think it’s the best thing we did tonight.”
If a queen and a maid are nominated by the same organization, they may campaign together. Otherwise, candidates are not permitted to campaign with other members.
Three more resolutions were put on the docket to be voted on next week, including a resolution to pray at university events, saying the pledge of allegiance before SGA meetings and changing the names of two committees within SGA
Olivia Melton, a senior math and economics major from Orange Beach and SGA president, said the SGA will be active this year.
“As you can tell by our first meeting, we have already passed a resolution pertaining to homecoming court, as well as opening up a lot of other resolutions pertaining to other documents on docket,” Melton said.
“We are planning to be very active this year in helping our students, so I hope students are very excited, because student government is ready to serve this year.”
