As the temperature cools down, student election season heats up. Sixty-one students have signed up to vie for vacancies in Student Senate and the role of class president for the Class of 2018.
The response and interest in leadership positions has surpassed that of recent years.
“We had a total of 61 candidates file, which is exciting since it’s much larger than usual,” said Emma Douglas, Student Government Association Election Commissioner and business honors sophomore. “We have a lot of candidates for the freshmen class president, which is unusual, but wonderful.”
Douglas said the rise in freshmen participation could have resulted from recruitment tactics used by the SGA.
“Part of it was there was a large freshmen class, and also Student Body President Kyle Kelly did a great job when he went and spoke to the Fish Camps”, Douglas said. “It really raised awareness to what we were doing and how freshmen could get involved. Our second largest component right now is the freshmen caucus, and I’m pretty certain it’s because SGA spoke at Fish Camp.”
SGA aims to reach more than just the freshmen however, said Hannah Weger, senate speaker and communication junior. She said the organization’s goals involve improving the day-to-day life of the entire student body.
“Once elected, a senator’s job is to represent the entire student body through research and advocacy,” Weger said. “In a nutshell, that means that they represent what their constituents want.”
The election process has already started for candidates interested in running, but with the general elections approaching quickly, candidates must look to make their final impressions this week.
General campaigning lasts from Monday through Wednesday. Voting starts at 8 a.m. Thursday and ends at noon on Friday.
Weger said while the candidates running for office are certainly important, SGA puts the general student body comes first.
“We really want to strive to keep the students in mind in everything we do,” Weger said. “We exist as an institution for the students, so we want to strive to take student opinion into account with all the change around campus, and also keep tradition in mind as well.”
Douglas said it is important for voters to be informed.
“The candidates have a pretty effective role on campus, and they are directly representing them,” Douglas said. “The students will want someone who correctly represents them and what they want to communicate to the higher ups of Texas A&M, and someone who is responsible and dependable that will attend the meetings and give them a voice.”