The Graduate Student Senate elections were held May 11 and only six of the 15 positions were filled for the 2005-2006 school year.
Quite a few college representative positions and three vice president positions still need to be filled
said Mark Mecum, who will be president of Graduate Student Senate next year.
The rest of those elected ran for college senator positions, and are: Sam Rossi, College of Arts and Sciences; Sothearith Im, College of Communication; Jeffrey Dickman, College of Engineering and Technology; Jason Hartz, College of Fine Arts; and Robert Wayner, College of Health and Human Services.
There are never many applications for positions on Graduate Student Senate or a large turnout for elections because most graduate students are not as involved or do not have time, said Talece Hunter, member of Graduate Student Senate Election Committee.
The voter turnout for this year's election decreased from last year with 161 students compared to 180 in 2004, according to the Administrative Senate election results.
Unfortunately there was not a good voter turnout for two main reasons Davis said.
Not many people were aware of the elections because the graduate student body did not receive the e-mail until that Wednesday at noon, Davis said. Also, the day of the election was the same day as the OAK system outage. This caused problems with the online voting system because no one was able to use their OAK ID to vote.
Mecum, who is now in charge of appointing people for next year, said he hopes to have all the positions filled by Fall Quarter.
I have already started recruiting people this quarter and will be recruiting more this summer to hopefully have the vast majority of seats filled Mecum said.
Last year there were applicants elected for all four executive positions, Davis said. This year only the president position was filled.
It seems to be apathy on the part of the student body
unfortunately
he said. They don't realize we exist or they don't care.
Despite the low participation rate, Mecum said he hopes he accomplishes his goals for Senate this upcoming year.
I want to increase and establish a partnership with the Student Senate
increase communication with the graduate students about opportunities for applying and receiving grants and better represent and assist international students at OU
Mecum said.
Yesterday the Graduate Student Senate concluded the 2004-05 year with their final meeting by inducting the new senators and president.
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Kelley Bond
