As many have noticed from the excessive sidewalk chalk and overzealous smiles, Student Senate campaign season has once again found its way to Ohio University’s campus. We are writing as the campaign managers for the Green Light ticket, but more importantly, as current Student Senate members, urging you to vote in this senate election.
It is easy to get caught up in the energy of campaign season (especially for us), but it is even easier to forget what we are even fighting for. Student Senate is the governing body for students at the university and we believe that it’s time for us to start acting like it. Throughout this campaign season and for as long as we can remember, people invalidate the work that Student Senate does because we struggle to take the next step of actually governing individuals. People de-legitimize passionate students’ work throughout the year and during the campaign to improve the university by not turning out to vote. On average, only 12.5 percent of students vote in the Student Senate elections. To us, and to most students involved with senate, this number is appalling.
We had the opportunity to sit down with the director of the American Student Government Association and ask him a question that has consistently found its way to our minds throughout the past year: How does Senate take the next step and make real change happen on the governmental level? His answer was simple, but daunting. He told us, “get more of the university to vote in your elections.”
Elections will be held Monday, April 3, and Tuesday, April 4, via an email sent out to all students enrolled at the Athens campus. Regardless of ticket affiliation or political beliefs, we urge you to vote.
Jon Schlosser is a sophomore studying adolescent to young adult integrated social studies and Haley Klier is a junior studying business administration in the Honor's Tutorial College.
