After last year’s conflict in the Student Government Association’s presidential election, SGA President Caleb Smith has filled the slot the students elected him to in the first place. He is serving Tech’s student body with spirit and dedication.

Last year Smith, a senior marketing major, fought hard to protect the right of the student vote when he was elected president in a 92-vote victory over Matt Babcock, a senior agriculture business major.

Smith said he has learned a lot about the student body and elections as a result of the election conflict.

“It caused me to pay much more attention to detail, taught me to communicate very clearly to the people on my team and it was an exercise in saying only things that were helpful,” Smith said.

“There were many opportunities to say things that would be hurtful to other people and to express negative feelings related to the stress of the experience, but I felt it was important to not burn any bridges or destroy any relationships over things that were really business-related.”

Smith also said the SGA is working hard to prevent future conflicts.

“Clearing up some of the election code questions has been one of the first things that we’ve done to prevent further confusion, which includes making revisions in the election code to ensure due process and to give greater flexibility and authority to the election committee,” Smith said. “We also spent a great amount of time making sure that the candidates for freshman elections understand what the boundaries are and what the process is in case one of them crosses the line.”

Tyler Landry, a chairperson of the rules and regulations committee and a sophomore psychology major, said these revisions are made to keep the by-laws updated.

Landry also said some examples of the approved bylaw amendments are: student organizations cannot campaign for an election candidate on an organizational A-frame announcement sign and all election protests and violations must be received by a member of the Election Committee no later than two hours after the polls close.

“The bylaws are a living document, which means there can be amendment proposals [by senators] at any time,” Landry said.

Smith said the key SGA members throughout the appeal process are still involved in the organization.

Smith said, “We have all put what happened in the spring behind us and are moving forward.”