The Student Government Association elections are in full swing but I am willing to bet that not each and every student knows it.
What comes to mind when the word election is thrown around? Greed heads, power grabbers and down right sleaze rise to the top of the pot whenever an election comes around. But for Northern Kentucky University, there isn’t anything good or bad to say about the candidates. Bad news and press drive elections. It gives voters something to chew on, but here at NKU there is no meat to the elections. Members of student government keep to themselves for the most part in the Student Union. Occasionally coming out for fresh air and food, but students are kept in the dark when it comes to SGA.
The elections aren’t acknowledged by students walking around campus.
‘SGA tries to get out to all students, some of the ways we do so is: E-mail, N3 announcements, Northerner advertisements, posters, flyers, handbills, info tables, and the SGA and NKU websites,’ said current SGA President and re-election candidate Gabe Cronon. ‘As far as the question of whether or not students know enough about SGA is no ‘hellip; students don’t know that we just passed a constitution, or what resolutions are passed. This is the challenge that faces SGA: how do we increase knowledge and participation in student government?’
The answer to Mr. Cronon’s question, get out of the office and down to the students. Instead of counting on an E-mail or the websites, SGA members should go out and talk to students MORE. They do get out and mingle with students, but from their efforts there are those still lost in the translation. How can there be an election without some good old fashioned hand shaking and baby kissing?
Now it could be on both parties, the students and SGA, for students not knowing enough about SGA and its politics. Some students don’t bother to read e-mails from SGA, some don’t bother to read the N3 messages and others just walk right on by the SGA informative tables. And it is on those in student government because of the reasons mentioned above. More should be done by all.
Students should care about what is going on around campus, for good or ill. It isn’t like the big politics that are done behind closed doors, which involve secret voodoo that no one understands. SGA has open meetings where students can come and question certain policies or bring to attention something that could be changed, like the fact that not a whole lot is well known around campus.
With the majority of students commuting to class everyday, not each one pays attention to the flyers/posters around campus. More should be done to get students to care about SGA and for them to actually vote in the elections. Little E-mails and N3 messages aren’t going to get the job done. ‘
The SGA candidates should get out in the middle of campus with a blow horn in one hand and their cause in the other, to let all hear what they have to say. The candidates in the upcoming election should make a schedule to do so. Every hour a fresh candidate comes out to plead his or her case to the populace.
Who knows, maybe that will work better than an E-mail or a pamphlet.
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