Student Government Association (SGA) Executive Secretary candidate Christopher Beckmann withdrew from the 2016 elections Thursday night due to an off-campus academic program he will be participating in next semester.
Beckmann was running unopposed on the RiseJHU ticket along with Executive President candidate Charlie Green, Executive Vice President candidate Anna Du and and Executive Treasurer candidate John Tycher.
Beckman withdrew from the race to pursue the Johns Hopkins University Aitchison Public Service Undergraduate Fellowship based in Washington D.C. next semester. Because he will no longer be at Homewood, Beckmann is ineligible to serve on SGA for fall 2016. He expressed sadness that he will be unable to serve as Executive Secretary.
“I'm honestly pretty bummed that I can't have the opportunity to serve on SGA because there are some parts of RiseJHU's platform that I was really excited to be a part of and try to execute,” Beckmann wrote in an email to The News-Letter.
With this withdrawal, the SGA Committee on Student Elections’ (CSE) has decided that a write-in candidate must fill the position of Executive Secretary.
“In result, there are no official candidates running for the position of Executive Secretary,” a CSE Facebook post read. “This means a write-in candidate will run and be elected into the position of Executive Secretary. All write-in candidates must abide by the Committee on Student Elections’ (CSE) Bylaws and will be held accountable for any deviance from the rules.”
Beckmann noted that he has encouraged several other individuals to run for Executive Secretary in his place.
“I've reached out to a couple people… encouraging them to start write in campaigns for secretary so hopefully this actually sparks some competition for the role,” Beckmann wrote.
Furthermore, he is confident that the Executive Secretary elected will do an excellent job and that his ticket will continue their work on their platform.
The News-Letter has reached out to the other RiseJHU candidates for comment.
Kelsey Ko contributed reporting.
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