A discussion held Wednesday among the Ball State Student Government Association (SGA) determined whether or not an amendment should be accepted. The amendment would require a total of 2,000 votes from the student body for a ticket to be passed. If this number was not met, the decision would fall upon the Senate to make the decision on the ticket.
The amendment author, Senator Grant Wilson, stated that “the Senate body is representative of the people,'' and if the amendment were passed, it would be the first part of the Senate enacting “tangible plans going forward” for the senate to improve the decline of student voting.
A major point that senators who were opposed to passing the amendment made was the limited number of people on the Senate that didn't represent the larger student body.
Senator Auston Everman had urged that “we have to get more voter turnout, and if we don’t [the Senate] can’t be representative of the student body.”
Another major point mentioned was that one of the problems connected to the lack of voter turnout was that not many students knew about SGA. As stated by Senator Emily Davidson, the issue that caused a lack of student voting was that “a vast majority of students don’t know what SGA is, or does, or that it even exists.”
After the meeting concluded, the decision stood with 28 senators who had voted against the amendment, which outweighed the 11 who voted for it.
Contact Zach Martin with any questions or comments at zachprestonmartin@gmail.com.
