As the nation’s eyes remain fixed on the upcoming presidential elections, ACU students shift their attention to elections that don’t consist of Democrats or Republicans but of their fellow class members.
Elections for class officers, building representatives and dorm representatives are being held today and Thursday in the Campus Center.
Prospective candidates began by collecting signatures from their constituents. They were required to collect a certain number based on the percentages of the members of their constituencies to earn a place on the ballot. Candidates also attended a meeting to go over the rules they should follow when campaigning.
All campaign material, whether it be social media or fliers, must receive approval from the election chair, Dylan Benac, junior political science major from Boerne and vice president of SA.
“What’s really cool about that is I get to see all the campaign fliers and the photos, and I get to see how the campaigns progress because of this rule,” Benac said. “This prevents things that might not be best suited for a campaign getting out on the ACU campus.”
Rebecca Dial, senior political science major from Lexington, S.C. and president of SA, finds it frustrating that ResLife has rules in place that make it more difficult for candidates to campaign.
“It’s a lot harder now to post fliers in dorms which I think is problematic especially for dorm representatives to really get their message out there,” Dial said. “I think it makes it harder for campaigns to get noticed, it makes it harder to encourage student involvement in voting.”
According to Benac, overall the number of candidates averages to about the same as last year, but are distributed differently.
“What’s really cool is we have a big number of freshman running for office, we have a good number of sophomore and we have a strong junior core,” Benac said. “But something we are lacking is senior leadership.”
There are no senior candidates running for class offices this year. Because of this, the SA executive cabinet is looking for seniors to appoint who will be committed to serving the student body.
SA has been working to advertise elections to garner student attention and votes. Benac expects a good turnout of voters.
“What’s really exciting is we have a lot of heavily contested races in some of the officer positions, and when you have a lot of people vying for votes they’re going to try really hard to get individuals to vote,” Benac said. “The potential for that to increase the voter turnout is high.”
Alice Hodde, sophomore biochemistry major from Bowie, is running for Smith-Adams dorm representative.
“I decided to run for office because I wanted to make an impact on ACU. SA is a great way to let students’ dreams and ideas become a reality.”
Hodde has created fliers, talked to Smith-Adams residents and held a meet and greet in her dorm to campaign for office. She wishes she had been involved with SA sooner.
Hodde said, “It’s important for students to get involved, not only by voting but also by communicating potential improvements to the officers and representatives.”
