Since December, there has been an empty seat in the senior class cabinet of SGA.
The Student Government Association called for a senior to take on the representative position to complete their cabinet but has received nothing but silence from their senior community. With no one stepping up to take the position, one begins to question why none of these soon-to-be graduates would like to help represent their class.
Senior SGA President Dennis Kisyk believes they have done everything possible to advertise this position to students.
Before last week’s SGA meeting, Kisyk explained their public relations methods. He felt that the e-mails sent to every member of the senior class, as well as networking by word of mouth, was sufficient to attract any eager students. He does not seem to think that is the problem.
Lin Sandstedt, who currently occupies one of the senior class representative seats, believes the empty seat is the result of poor timing. “The reason why nobody’s probably running is because they figure it’s too late. We have two months left and everything’s already set in motion,” Sandstedt said.
Perhaps asking second semester seniors to take on such a large responsibility during the last era of their undergraduate career may be an inconceivable stretch. The vice president of programming Erin Rosa feels that is part of the situation that the SGA is dealing with.
“It is really difficult to try to entice seniors second semester to join student government because it is a large commitment and a lot of work,” Rosa said. She also implied that a small percent of the issue could be linked with the apparent inclination for inactivity among seniors.
Senior Justin Sindone shared his reasons for not wanting a position on SGA. “One, I don’t have any time, two, I don’t know if I want to handle that responsibility and three, I’d rather keep up my grades,” Sindone said.
Lindsey Franke, junior entrepreneurship and management major, has similar thoughts about the subject. While she believes it is a large responsibility, she feels that many students are simply lazy. She added that this could be something she would have taken on had she been in the respective position.
“If you look at the history, we haven’t had any problems filling spaces before,” Michael Radparvar, senior class president, said. He has seen the positive turnout of many other special elections and strongly feels it is a ‘second semester senior’ dilemma and not a gross lack of drive.
Despite all this debate, the absence of one representative position does not worry the rest of the senior SGA members. As Radparvar stated, “We have an extremely strong cabinet, and a really diverse, eclectic group where the campus is represented well.”
