The Student Government Association will be holding elections tomorrow for next year’s executive board and senator positions.
Two parties are running for the executive board this year: The United Voice and team gIvebaCk.
The United Voice consists of juniors Brian Keefe for student body president, Chloe Todd for vice president of campus life, Cody Anderson for vice president of business and finance, sophomore Kirsten Quinn for vice president of academics and sophomore Jimmy Knowles for vice president of communications.
Their platform focuses on gaining a consensus of all the voices on campus, including the students, administration and Ithaca.
“We want to find out exactly what people want to get accomplished and how we can accomplish them,” Keefe said.
The second part of The United Voice’s platform focuses on improving the internal structure of the SGA.
“I have been on the executive board for a year and a half now and Jimmy has been a senator since his freshman year, so we’ve had a lot of representation on SGA in the past,” Keefe said. “We’re going to have committees representing our initiatives so that throughout the year we can set objectives for these committees.”
Team gIvebaCk consists of juniors Kevin Fish for student body president, Susannah Faulkner for vice president of campus life, Ruthie Goff for vice president of business and finance, J. Morgan Ewing for vice president of academics and Julia Dunn for vice president of communications.
Their platform focuses on increasing sustainability initiates on campus, increasing transparency of SGA actions and fostering communication between students and campus services.
“We want to do a lot of really big things on campus next year, and we’re really excited about getting there,” Dunn said. “We really want to get more people involved because we really feel like either people don’t know what is going on or they don’t know how to get more involved.”
Team gIvebaCk plans to have open forums and outreach programs in order to engage students.
“We need to make sure we know the pulse on campus to know what students are really passionate about,” she said.
Students will receive an e-mail early tomorrow with an electronic ballot, which will list students’ options for senators and executive boards. The elections will close on Sunday, and the results will be released Tuesday.
“When students understand that we are their voice and we are their liaison between them and the administration, it becomes very clear that SGA plays a huge role in what happens on campus,” current SGA President Jeff Goodwin said. “Students can’t complain about what’s going on campus or what’s going wrong if they aren’t willing to even vote.”
Senior Will Mathewson, current vice president of communications, said he has high hopes for the elections.
“It’s nice that both parties have people who have been heavily involved and done a lot for the SGA in the past,” he said. “It’s good to see that they’re looking to make the next step in service to the SGA for an executive board position. No matter which party wins, I know that there are going to be qualified people serving on the executive board.”
