For the first time in Student Government Association history, potential candidates were allowed an open forum for their campaigning questions.
“[SGA] wants to use this as an opportunity to teach students the rules of campaigning for office, mostly because we have seen increased interest in SGA this year,” said Kevin Thurman, elections board chair.
Although the event had less than 20 people show up, Thurman said he was not judging the success of the event on attendance, but rather plans to use the forum as another way to get the word out about the impact SGA has.
He said the most often asked question about SGA is, “What exactly does SGA do?”
“SGA actually has a large impact on campus,” Thurman said. “We set up the Blue Loop, let students get on MITS buses for free and introduced the need for the new [Student] Recreation [and Wellness] Center.”
Thurman said he expects four to seven slates to run, but more than 11 election packets have been picked up.
“This is going to be the most interesting election in the past decade,” he said.
Along with increased interest in SGA, Zach Hartley, debate coordinator, said he plans to make the debates more interesting.
“The goal is to get rid of the fluff,” Hartley said. “This is not a feel-good election; this is a campaign. Get ready for debates to be more intense than in the past.”
Alyssa France, a junior political science major and SGA senator-at-Large, said she knows several of the rules have changed, which is why she attended Tuesday’s event.
“I think this is a great place for people who are running to ask questions within an open forum,” France said.
France said each year those in charge of the rules interpret them differently, something that concerned freshman political science major Jason Pickell.
“I’m a senator and I wanted to be sure I understood what the elections are all about,” Pickell said. “I could have asked someone else, but I thought it would be better to learn it here for myself.”
The event was open to all students, though freshman political science major Daqavise Winston said he thinks it is more important for potential candidates to come instead of just voters.
“You probably wouldn’t even know about it if you hadn’t picked up a packet,” Winston said. “People just aren’t going to come to something like this. It is hard to get candidates to sign up or people to vote, let alone come to a forum.”
