With Student Senate Elections Approaching, Students Reflect on the Meaning of their Vote
By Vincent DiFonzo, Content Manager
College Union Building (Photo Eric Lippe/The Gettysburgian)
In the upcoming weeks, Student Senate elections will be held to select class officers, senators, and executive board members, including vice-president and president, for the 2023 to 2024 academic year. All current students are eligible to vote, including graduating seniors.
An email sent to the student body by Senate Vice-President Geoffrey Meadville ’25 outlined important reminders for the elections. Voting begins on Mar. 27, the same day that presidential and vice-presidential debates are scheduled to be held. Additionally, the Senate will host election education sessions on Mar. 21 and 22 at 4 p.m. in Mara Auditorium.
Despite previous efforts to increase student engagement with Senate, voter turnout among students has been low in past elections.
In the elections for the 2022 to 2023 academic year, only 181 students voted for Senate president, with current president Miranda Zamora ’23 as the only candidate on the ballot. In previous years, over 600 students consistently turned out to cast a ballot for president.
Current Senate Executive Board members have taken initiative to increase engagement with the Senate by the student body. Zamora commented on their efforts, stating that they “advertise elections as much as we can in an attempt to get people to vote.” These efforts include tabling in CUB and other activities that allow for students to voice concerns directly to the Senate.
Zamora encouraged students to vote in next month’s elections and said, “Everything is online so it makes it easily accessible to the campus and can be completed anytime within the voting period!”
Zamora theorized that voter turnout is low among students because of how engaged many members of the campus are. With students involved in so many activities and courses, Zamora believes that voting “may slip the mind of some students,” causing many engaged students to not cast their ballot.
Zamora remains optimistic that efforts to increase engagement will lead to an increase in voter turnout in the 2023 to 2024 elections.
Several students commented on the importance of casting their ballot in student Senate elections.
Stephanie Chaga ’23 has voted in every Senate election during her time at Gettysburg. Despite this, Chaga expressed discontent with the state of student Senate and fears that her vote is not resulting in any progress.
“It is apparent that student body concerns and requests are essentially ignored,” said Chaga.
Further, Chaga pointed to concerns such as Senate shutdowns, financial mismanagement, and ignorance of student requests as reasons the student body may be apathetic towards voting. She added that she hopes that Senate will tackle issues such as extending servo hours for Muslim students during Ramadan and extending library hours back to 24/7.
Nate Bowers ’25 said he wants Senate to act on extending hours in Servo and the library. However, he feels that Senate has repeatedly failed to listen to student concerns.
“If Senate could provide tangible updates and show real progress, then many more students would be engaged and view them favorably,” said Bowers.
On voting, Bowers argued that “not voting can be an act of protest—what mandate will Senate have if only a small proportion of the student body votes?”
Senator-at-Large Nicholas Ryan ‘26 said they believe that it is important to vote in Senate elections even if you feel that it is flawed. “If you dismiss Senate as a lost cause, it both confirms the problem and lets Senate not reflect the student body,” Ryan said.
Additionally, Ryan sees a lack of diversity as an issue in the Senate, saying, “Senate is not diverse, and that will not change unless more people both run and vote.”
Ryan encouraged students to take part in this year’s elections to create a more representative senate body.
This article originally appeared on page 5 of the March 2023 edition of The Gettysburgian’s magazine.
Editor’s note: The elections have occurred already, so some of the information in this article may be out of date. Read about them here.
