Elections

Well this past week was the first week of elections. Here are the student representatives for next year :
Pres : Larson Thune
VPAA: Dan Stana
VPSA: Candace Avalos
Treasurer: Tara Rife

And the SRBOV position was a run-off between Marley Green and Fred Rose. Be sure to vote this Thursday !

So as the most important week of elections has mostly come to an end, I assume everyone thinks that each of the candidates will dance away with a victory and score one for their resume. But aside from the many facebook friends they will surely make, the many faces they will officially meet from the administration, and the pretty little SGA business cards that will have their names on it, they will need to remember the students ( NOT ONLY THE ONES THAT VOTED FOR THEM ). I challenge everyone to hold their student representatives accountable for their actions, and to use their position for the betterment of everyone on the campus.

I can explain to you the complacency that runs wild throughout our campus, and it makes no sense when we have such low turnout. The reason is communication, because we have to be connected to stay together. Use our differences to know that we can be strong as a united student body, but that would require some shaking up, because life is made to have the strong and the weak, the oppressor and the oppressed.

We have on average 12-14% voter turnout. The last election was filled with drama, and with 2 candidates there was about 25% turnout. That special election was truly special because it had lots of coverage, good and bad, and it caused a lot of students to think about their student government and dig them out of the hole that most people put them in. There was a large controversy that shed light on the power brokers of our campus, and the interesting inner workings of the influential organizations on campus, so of course some people payed attention. The one before that only had 12% turn out, and it was very much uncontested from many aspects, with there being a semi-contest election for Student Body President with an incumbent going against a write-in candidate, along with one legit race for the S.R.B.O.V. osition where the incumbent Stacey Fuller won.

Our current election had 26% voter turn out, which is the largest its been in a while, but this is for a general election, with a multitude of candidates, with 2 very popular presidential candidates, and 4 S.R.B.O.V position, of which there were a multitude of special interests represented ! We need to have voter turn out stay at the level it is, so as we get bigger and we approach expansion, we need to make sure that we reach out to the best of our abilities.

Elections have traditionally been popularity contests, and I hope that as the days go on we get the ability to have a good understanding of the character and qualifications of someone wanting to represent us ( EVERYONE OF US AND NOT JUST ONE CLIQUE )

For this election, I would love to give you my my insight on the candidates, I will keep my opinion away from the characters running for the particular positions because I wouldn't want to use a place such as this to expose or bolster any candidate in any means or form.

Next week along with discussing SGA bills, I will take some time to talk about the process of campaigning and getting to know the student body from a representational aspect. So stay tuned. ..