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This year’s spring general elections for the Syracuse University Student Association did not reach its goal of 10% undergraduate participation, SA Board of Elections Chair Otto Sutton announced in a campus-wide email Saturday.

Several SA leaders have supported efforts to increase voter turnout and general student engagement with the association, which it has struggled with in years past. In the most recent elections, from April 1 to 5, 743 undergraduate students cast a ballot — around 100 less than the last election cycle.

Due to the low participation rate, SA was unable to validate its proposed constitution referendum.

The proposed revisions included a name change to the Student Government Association, an adjustment to its judicial structure and the addition of a SUNY ESF Mighty Oak Student Assembly liaison.

“We were proud of the outreach that we were able to follow through with,” said Reed Granger, SA’s newly-elected vice president. “Of course we wanted more turnout, but just to be able to get the Student Association name in peoples’ heads was a very imperative first step.”

German Nolivos, Granger and Alexis Leach will serve as the association’s next president, vice president and comptroller, respectively. They each received over 90% of the vote and all ran unopposed for their positions in SA’s 68th session.

Nolivos said this year’s election was “more difficult than normal” because the executive elections were all uncontested. He said he hopes next year’s elections will feature more candidates.

“This is a democratic process, and having so many uncontested elections doesn’t represent a democratic process,” Nolivos said. “It doesn’t reflect the democratic positive and belief we have for this organization.”

The Nolivos-Granger campaign received many endorsements from current and former student government leaders — such as SA presidential and vice presidential incumbents William Treloar and Yasmin Nayrouz — despite running uncontested.

Their campaign also backed the introduced referendum throughout the week-long election period. Nolivos previously told The Daily Orange he was in complete support of the changes and hoped it would facilitate a “new chapter” for the association.

“German, myself and frankly whoever is a part of the 68th session of the Student Association, will probably also aim to try and do a constitutional referendum, again, because it needs to be SGA instead of SA, period,” Granger said.

Although SA couldn’t get the votes to validate the revisions this semester, Leach said the association plans to reintroduce the referendum in the next general election cycle.

“We are able to pass not only what we wanted to this year, but add the things we were unable to add in this current election,” she said.

Nolivos, Granger and Leach said one of their major goals this year will be to bridge SA and the rest of the student body. Nolivos said he attributes SA’s ongoing issues with engagement to students not being aware of the association’s “impact” on their campus experiences.

The association aims to expand its relationship with registered student organizations on campus through initiatives like SA on Tour — where representatives from the association visit RSOs on campus and explain the resources SA offers, Leach said.

Nolivos said the administration also plans to continue supporting the student body through SA’s ongoing sustainability initiatives like its Sustainability Forum and its internal Green Purchasing Guide.

“Even though (improving engagement) is gonna be a challenge, I don’t think I’m gonna have a bad time doing it,” Leach said. “I think it’s gonna be a good challenge.”

Published on April 7, 2024 at 10:16 pm

Contact Claire: cksamsta@syr.edu