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Monday, March 28, 2016
Northern Star
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The College Grind’s Open Mic Night gives students a creative voice
SA election dominated by Greeks
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Benjamin Donovan Senior political science and history major
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Benjamin Thomas | Northern Star
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Perspective
Atlee Hargis | Northern Star
Presidential candidate Giuseppe LaGioia (left) and presidential candidate Alex Forgue speak at the Student Association Candidates’ Debate Thursday in the Holmes Student Center, Heritage Room.
SA candidates should communicate better Northern Star Editorial Board
Although the One NIU ticket is running unopposed in the Student Association executive elections — with the exception of opposing presidential candidate Alex Forgue — neither the ticket nor Forgue have communicated enough with students, which is unacceptable. SA executive and senate elections will be Tuesday and Wednesday and students are able to vote online through Huskielink as well as polling stations on campus. Polls open 9 a.m. Tuesday and close 6 p.m. Wednesday. The One NIU ticket includes presidential candidate Giuseppe LaGioia, vice presidential candidate Rachel Jacob, treasurer candidate Brian Robinson and student trustee candidate Matthew Holmes. The SA serves as the voice of the students and plays a very important role at NIU. The SA is responsible for $7 million in student fees and allocates that money to student groups. The SA also works with officials like NIU President Doug Baker and the Board of Trustees to make changes on campus. The SA’s executive board plays a huge part in representing
the student body and, other than Voting a Facebook and Twitter page, the Editorial Board has not seen much • Polls open at 9 a.m. Tuesday campaigning from the One NIU and close 6 p.m. Wednesday ticket or Forgue.
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Campaigning The One NIU ticket’s Facebook page was created March 21, just eight days before the executive elections. The ticket did not begin posting about its candidates until Tuesday, and then continued to post candidate profiles once a day. The last candidate profile, which was posted Saturday, was of Holmes, One NIU’s student trustee candidate. The student trustee serves on the Board of Trustees, which “operate, manage, control and maintain [NIU],” according to the Board of Trustees bylaws. The student trustee fills one of the eight trustee positions on the Board of Trustees with voting power equal to the other seven. They are intended to give student representation during Board of Trustees decisionmaking — making it one of the most important positions. The One NIU ticket also has a Twitter page; however, they first began tweeting only three days ago. There is no social media page for Forgue
Vote online: niu.collegiatelink.net
explicitly stating his candidacy. The executive election candidates should be doing more to communicate with the student body. Creating a Facebook page almost a week before the elections does not give the students enough time to find the page and become informed about the ticket or its goals for the academic year. In years past, there have been posters around campus informing students about SA candidates. Some candidates would stand outside and hand out flyers to students passing by. Just because three members of the One NIU ticket are running unopposed does not mean the ticket should not have to work for the majority of the student body’s vote. Last year, only 2,474 of NIU’s 19,000 students voted.
Read Online | bit.ly/1WSwt77
The Student Association has failed to facilitate democracy. Article I Section 4 of the SA Constitution states that “each student shall have an equal right to participate” in a democratically elected student government. My issue is not with voter pa r t ic ipat ion, our students may freely choose if they would like Benjamin to vote or not. Donovan My issue is with Senior political candidate partic- science and history major ipation, and the lack of choice our students have when they decide they are going to vote. For the third year in a row, a “unity” ticket consisting of Interfraternity Council fraternities, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and a token Panhellenic Council Association sorority is dominating the political landscape. They are running against what is increasingly insignificant opposition. This year the SA election information meetings resulted in only one other declared candidate, down from three last year and eight the year before. This shortage of candidates is bad for democracy and bad for the SA. While this political arrangement may represent a unity of some Greek interests, it leaves many other groups high and dry; most notably the United Greek Council, the fourth Greek council. In these trying times, the student government needs the most dynamic leaders possible, but under the current system, if you are not Greek, you cannot get in. Less than 10 percent of our student population is Greek, yet they dominate the student political system in totalitarian fashion. This is hardly befitting to the democratic system we have come to expect as citizens and students. Electoral competition is supposed to keep electoral groups from becoming complacent; however, this lack of competition is causing the Greeks in student government to do just that. There are several structural reforms that can be made to address this problem. However, given the brevity of my space, I will focus on the two most important. First, I call on the SA to reduce the number of signatures needed to appear on the executive ballots from 400 to 200. The number of required signatures is the largest structural barrier to candidate participation. Gathering 400 signatures is an almost insurmountable task for anyone not on a four person, Greek ticket with hundreds of chapter members who will sign their petitions with no questions asked. I also call on the SA to significantly increase restrictions on spending in these elections.
Read Online | bit.ly/1pET784