While on a cruise during spring break, former student body president candidate Glenn Moraven found out he needed to talk to Paul Cousins, the director of the Office of Student Conduct.

Moraven said he racked his brain trying to think of what it could be. When he talked to Cousins, he found out that he may not be eligible to run for student body president and that he needed to discuss his status with Evelyn Reiman, associate vice chancellor of student affairs.

“I talked to my adviser, Sandra Stallings, and she told me she had faith in me that I could bring my GPA up enough to run,” Moraven said.

Stallings called Reiman, as Moraven sat at Stallings’ desk side listening to the voice of support for his candidacy from Stallings.

“She told Ms. Reiman that I could do it, but Ms. Reiman said she could not make a decision at that time,” Moraven said.

Since then, Moraven has dropped out of the student body president race, which Andre Iriarte joined, and a number of senatorial candidates who have left the race due to the Policies, Rules and Regulations in place this year.

The PRR states that candidates must have 2.5 GPA, unless a suitable recovery plan is approved, and must maintain full-time student status.

According to Cousins, the process for checking eligibility starts with the basic review of the student’s status. The administrator would communicate the status to the student and if the GPA standard is not met, then the student can meet with his or her adviser of the respective organization to draft a recovery plan.

But administrators and the Elections Commission have run into problems this year, as they are quickly running out of time to check all students’s eligibility.

“This is the first cycle using this regulation,” Cousins said. “We need to develop a mechanism where we can check the status for anyone who announces candidacy for anything.”

According to Cousins, part of the problem with this year’s election is that people announced they were running but hadn’t officially filed.

“People started advertising they were running, but the checks had not been done,” Cousins said. “Everyone needs to be more mindful of the sequence of checking these people.”

Brittany Prater, the chair of the Elections Commission, has been working with Cousins and Reiman since just before spring break, she said, as the administration has kept her informed of any decisions made.

“We’re kind of put into a time crunch,” Prater said. “[The commission] is a liaison between the administration and the candidates, and we’ve had to do things really quickly.”

According to Prater, some background checks have taken longer than others, which have created some time problems.

“Spring break kind of hurt us, and we had waivers due right before that,” Prater said. “During the break, I had some trouble getting a hold of candidates.”

The commission hopes to have all PRR appeals done by 2 p.m. today and the books re-opened by 5 p.m. If everything is done on schedule, elections will take place on time on Monday and Tuesday.

“It should still put us on schedule, which is important for everyone involved,” Prater said.