With a surprisingly low number of voters, the Student Government Association has announced the winners of its 2024-25 executive board elections.
Logan Palardy, the current treasurer of SGA, won the election for president, while Interim Vice President Toluwani Adeniyi won the election for vice president, shedding the interim tag. Sen. Leticia Castro was elected treasurer and will join Palardy and Adeniyi on the executive board.
Only 249 students filled out ballots, a significantly low number for a university that, according to CCSU’s fall 2023 enrollment report, has 7,917 undergraduate students.
Castro, who ran unopposed, said she expected to see more voters.
“I was expecting more; there are about 7,500 students on this campus, and to see that like 250 people voted, I was hoping that at least 500 even,” she said. “Not that I expect everyone to go on to their email or club central and see the ‘vote here now,’ but it says a lot about our culture as people who need to vote this year because it is an election year.”
Palardy won the presidential election by a wide margin, defeating Isabelle Young-Guzman with 207 votes to her 42 votes. He said he was surprised at the low turnout of ballots and the shortage of students willing to run for the executive board.
“I was surprised by how low it was,” he said. “I was also surprised by how few people wanted to run.”
Castro said the lack of students running for the executive board can discourage students from voting.
“That’s what I was hoping for, an actual campaign, a debate, or even seeing other posters for a different treasurer,” she said. “Seeing myself as the only option kind of discourages other students, like ‘why would I vote if there’s only one person running? Automatically, she wins.’”
As president of SGA, Palardy said he hopes to generate more engagement with the CCSU community.
“Something we are really going to focus on is just becoming more part of the community, meeting all different types of people, getting involved,” he said. “I want to do a lot more co-sponsorships with a bunch of organizations on campus, clubs and organizations, just to really insert us into the community more.”
Adeniyi, who also ran unopposed, echoed Palardy’s sentiment about strengthening the connection between SGA and the CCSU community.
“I’m just here to make a change,” Adeniyi said. “Fix that connection between the students and SGA and let them actually know we are here for them.”
As treasurer, Castro said she wants to help bring excitement back to Central’s campus by funding the clubs that give back to the students.
“I understand that there is a student activities fee which most people, well, everyone has to pay into, but most people don’t tap into. They don’t join the clubs, they don’t go to the events,” she said. “As treasurer, I just want to make sure that we bring back life to this campus, and the best way to do that is to fund the clubs that are bringing it back to the students.”
With the executive board elections completed, the SGA will now seek to elect a senate. Voting for the general senate election begins on April 27 and continues through April 28.
