Staff Editorial
When Corey Paris was re-elected Student Senate president last semester, becoming the first student to do so, he made various promises to the school as to what the Senate would attempt to accomplish this year.
However, with his recent departure for another school – abandoning his role as Senate president – the entire Student Senate is up in arms as to who will take over his role of leadership. This also means that once again, the entire student body is responsible for deciding who will fill that void.
Students must start paying attention to the voting process. The vast majority of students seem to ignore the elections for Senate leadership roles, despite the efforts the Senate puts in to making voting accessible to all. This year, only 302 people voted, down from the mere 371 votes attained for the 2009-10 year. This isn’t working.
Perhaps many students feel voting for the Senate elections is a waste of time for an insignificant group on campus, but the truth is, Senate impacts much of what all of us do here. The PaperCut program, for one, was initiated by Student Senate.
Students, the campus-wide smoking ban was the idea of the Senate, who brought the idea to Dana Grove, the executive vice president of Education Planning and Development.
So yes, the voting does matter.
Not to mention, the Student Senate is the direct voice between the thousands of students on campus and the upper levels of administration, such as, say, President Terry Calaway. So why would most students not care about such an important link?
With Paris’ defection, the Student Senate will hold another round of voting for the presidency position Sept. 26. As students, we need to pay attention to this and make our voices heard. Again, this decision could ultimately impact all of us with the ideas and choices the Senate makes. It only takes a second to stop by the computer stations set up for voting, or to log onto the website they set up and vote there. Really simple. Really easy.
We understand many of you are bogged down by classwork and do not have the time to focus on who should take over the presidency of the Student Senate, but if you care about the decisions they make that could very easily impact you, then vote.
CORRECTION The elections held from Sept. 6 through 8 are general elections for Senators. In the event of a vacanacy on the Executive Board, elections to fill those places are conducted within Student Senate – not through a public election. Student Senate will vote to elect a new secretary on Sept. 19, and again to elect a new president on Sept. 26. Regardless, the Ledger still encourages students to vote in the general election Sept. 6 through 8. The decisions voted on by Senators affect every student’s life on campus.