Elections are being held this week to determine who will be on the Student Senate executive cabinet for the 2012-2013 academic year. Campaign took place Monday, April 16, and voting is still up on Blackboard until this Friday.
The organization that advocates for student rights has four Elizabethtown College students on the ballot for next year. They are sophomore Robert Graham for president, junior Kristen Lacaillade for vice president, junior Keelyan Sheeley for secretary and junior Morgan McKenney for treasurer.
If each candidate is running unopposed, why does Senate bother to hold elections?
According to Lacaillade, the purpose of voting in a situation like this is to give the student body the opportunity to indicate whether or not they are confident that a candidate will represent them well—the same ultimate purpose as holding traditional elections. If there are more ‘no’ votes than ‘yeses,’ then Senate will hold another election to ensure that students are satisfied by the results.
Graham, who is also a member of the academic council, is eager to do as much as he can to make Etown a better place. He is ready to offer his leadership skills to the rest of the campus.
“I’m running because I feel that I have the leadership abilities that could run the Senate in a well enough way that improves how we do and how we advocate student rights,” Graham explained. “Especially since I’m only a sophomore now, I have two years of possibly being in this position. There are a lot more long-term goals that we could get done, and I feel like I know what it is going to take to get Senate to be more open to the students. They will be able to have a better line of communication so that together we can work and improve Elizabethtown.”
He also emphasized that these Senate elections are an extremely important part of campus life because the student body has the power to choose who they want to represent them.
“While people might think it to be a popularity contest, it really shouldn’t be. It should be who you think is actually going to do the work,” Graham said. “We have had issues with people who just feel like they can do the job, but, really, they just want it on their resume or because they know people that would vote them in. Sometimes it really ends up hindering us because they don’t show up to meetings, they don’t give us good ideas, and they don’t try to find out what students want. It is important to know who is going to be voicing for the overall students and that they’re actually going to be doing it.”
