More than 50 percent of students who applied for SGA positions have been disqualified, causing the postponement of Student Government Association elections.

According to Jolanda Kindell and Déjà Waymer, co-directors of elections and transition, students were disqualified from running for SGA positions because their GPAs or credit hours did not meet requirements, or because they had financial holds on their accounts.

“They didn’t meet the qualifications in the handbook,” Kindell said. SGA president Tomasi Larry was tight-lipped on the matter.

He said he regarded the exact number of disqualified students as “confidential” and would not comment on it.

Waymer also said that the number of disqualified students is something she couldn’t discuss.

“[Confidentiality is] a part of our policy,” Waymer said.

According to the SGA handbook, a student must have a 2.5 GPA and be in good academic and disciplinary standing with the University.

The candidate also must be a full-time student with 15 credit hours for the semester in which they are applying.

The student must also have the total number of overall credits that applies to the classification for which they are applying, such as freshman, sophomore, junior or senior status.

The original interest period for SGA positions was Jan. 22-25; the rescheduled date is Feb. 19-20.

“We are opening elections to everybody now,” Waymer said.

In all, there are 37 positions open, including class president, homecoming court and SGA president and vice president.

Now that the positions are reopened, everyone, including the candidates who were cleared initially, must reapply.

Waymer said that prior to the incident about 30 percent of the 37 available positions were filled, but there were no candidates for SGA president and vice president. Junior class president Eric Jefferson intends to run for Mr. NCCU for the following academic year.

But his plans were almost thwarted by a mistake concerning his financial standing.

“They said I owed the school like $2,000,” Jefferson said.

Jefferson said he was relieved to know that this was a mistake that could be fixed.

“That was the only thing I didn’t qualify for,” he said.

“I was ineligible for something the school messed up on, not me.”

Kindell has served on the elections committee for two years and was co-director last year.

Déjà Waymer has served on the SGA since her freshman year.

“This is really, really unusual,” said Kindell.

“I don’t remember anything like this happening. This is unheard of.”

Waymer said the main issue that caused the confusion was that students were not knowledgeable about their academic status and standing with the University prior to applying.

“We informed everyone of what the qualifications were before they applied,” Waymer said.

“The problem we’re having this year is really nothing we can prevent,” she said.

“We can only encourage people to be familiar with their status.”

Voting is rescheduled for March 27. Students will be able to vote online on Blackboard.