SGA Elections Actually Matter, So Vote

Kristina Vakhman, News Editor

The Student Government Association at Central Connecticut is not the primary school version of a mock school government. It has real influence on- and off-campus, and your vote in its elections matters.

A total of 305 individual students voted in the SGA’s 2019-2020 executive board election, according to the results sent out by email earlier this month. That number is a ridiculously significant decrease from the SGA’s 2018-2019 turnout when 946 students logged in to vote. What is even more outrageous is that 305 figure is out of a class of 9,800 full-time eligible undergraduate student voters – and yes, graduating seniors can vote, too.

Aside from other factors like not-as-intense campaigning this year and fewer candidates running, this low turnout amounts to the fundamental issue that there is a serious disconnect between students and the consequential impact of what the SGA does for the student body.

The SGA considers all CCSU undergraduate students as members of the university’s student government. The Senate itself is a representative body of students elected by students.

According to the SGA’s website, the Senate is “responsible for acting as the voice of the students; we handle their concerns, needs and celebrations” and “for promoting student participation in the various projects, committees and organizations at the university, state and national level that help shape the university and education in Connecticut.”

Those responsibilities are not an understatement. The SGA takes them more seriously than students realize, making them an integral part of student life and thus imperative to pay attention to.

Like a real government, the SGA has multiple roles. Perhaps the biggest is its financial influence. The Senate allocates the SGA portion of the Student Activity Fund that pays for student clubs, activities, services – which include Student Center functions – and forums.

Additionally, the SGA’s Finance Committee is the deciding board for club budgets; if clubs want money, their e-boards present their budget requests to the Finance Committee, whose senators vote whether the club’s demands tick all of the boxes for approval. That means if your club wants money to go on a trip, the Finance Committee will effectively tell you whether or not you can have it to go.

Moreover, the SGA’s senators have increasingly become more involved with representing CCSU students in other governments. Senators sit in on the CCSU Faculty Senate’s committees’ meetings and inject student grievances into that organization’s discussions, like textbook prices and the need for open-educational resources.

Senators also play a role in local government to testify on behalf of students. The SGA always makes appearances at hearings at the Capitol that concern things like tuition increases or bills regarding student protections, like a recent one aimed at shielding interns and student teachers from exploitation that ended up passing the state’s Labor and Public Employee Committee.

Furthermore, most of the student-run events on-campus would not happen without the SGA’s involvement. The SGA assists with funding and planning whenever it can. With the senior class trip, for instance, it is set to cover the cost; the same goes for events it co-sponsors, like the annual A Cappella Benefit Concert. And a lot of events done by clubs, again, are funded through their budget requests, such as the Fashion Show.

In essence, when you vote in SGA elections, you’re not just voting for someone with an empty title. The SGA has a substantial role on the CCSU campus and off of it. It determines a lot when it comes to the student experience and the few minutes it will take for you to log into TheLink and vote in its elections are worth it.