An attempted recall almost unseated the president of the St. Edward’s University Student Government Association the day after she was sworn in.

On Oct. 29, Leigh Anne Winger, a freshman who is not a member of SGA, raised the constitutionality of Krista Heiden’s succession to the position of SGA president. The recall effort would have required an equivalent of 35 percent of the people who voted for Heiden and then-presidential candidate Blanca Garcia in last spring’s election.

The ticket of Garcia and Heiden received 488 votes, meaning that a minimum of 171 students would have to sign a petition to remove Heiden.

If the effort had been successful, SGA would have immediately removed Heiden from office.

Winger, a candidate for freshman senator in the Sept. 22-29 elections, was concerned that Heiden had not served enough consecutive semesters in SGA to be president.

The SGA constitution requires a student to have served four consecutive semesters in SGA in order to run for president. Because Heiden has served five non-consecutive semesters, having taken a break from SGA during the first semester of her junior year, Winger said she saw a conflict between constitutional code and Heiden’s succession as president.

But SGA read the rules differently than Winger, Heiden said.

“The of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee (Celso Baez) interpreted the constitution to mean that the four semesters has to do with running for the presidency, not assuming it, as I did,” Heiden said.

Heiden appointed Baez to the committee chairmanship. Baez had previously served as the campaign manager for Heiden and Garcia. Prior to that, Baez was a senator in SGA. He was unavailable for comment.

Heiden replaced Blanca Garcia at the Oct. 28 SGA meeting, after Garcia resigned for personal reasons. Heiden had been serving as SGA’s vice president. According to the SGA constitution, one of the duties of the vice president is to assume the office of president in the event of the president’s resignation or removal from office.

Winger ended her efforts on Monday, Nov. 1 after she discussed her concerns with SGA Advisor Marisa Lacey.

“I feel that SGA is striving to accommodate the needs of the student body, and that under the leadership of Krista Heiden and the executive board, hopefully the students’ voices will be heard,” Winger said.

Winger said she had heard about Heiden’s succession as president when the membership offices on CollegiateLink changed to reflect Heiden’s new position.

Heiden said she wishes Winger had gone through more appropriate channels to bring up her concerns.

“She has three senators representing her, the two freshman senators and the senator of her residence hall,” Heiden said. “She should’ve used one of them to raise the issue instead of starting a recall.”

Heiden also acknowledged that Winger started the recall because she saw that a crucial decision was seemingly being made behind closed doors, without the approval of the student body.

As a result of the attempted recall, Heiden said that SGA will try to make their decisions more open and transparent for the student body.

“SGA has been pretty open and transparent already,” Heiden said. “We have open meetings, and [the Nov. 9] State of the Campus Address will talk about legislation that we’re working on passing and any legislation the students wish us to look at. But I guess if we’re waiting for students to come to us with concerns instead of us pushing them out there, our policies aren’t open enough.”

Heiden’s succession into the presidency leaves SGA without a vice president. In the interim, Noah Corn, senator of the School of Humanities, is serving as president pro tempore.

Corn and Student Court of Appeals Chief Justice Vianney Becerra, who swore Heiden into the presidency at the Oct. 28 meeting, are the two vice presidential candidates running in the special election, which starts Nov. 11 on CollegiateLink and will last until Nov. 18.

Editor’s Note: This article has been changed to reflect that, as vice president, Krista Heiden appointed Celso Baez to his current position.