Why you should vote in student government elections

By Petruce Jean-Charles | Published by March 16, 2018

Student Government’s last election  had 420 total voters and The Graduate & Part-time Student Council election had 49 voters out of 16,019 total students including graduate and part-time students.

With this election, Student Government wants to achieve the same amount of voters if not more to ensure the voices of the student body are heard. Some students are unaware of the services and elections held yearly.

“To be honest I have never really been involved or understood what student government was about,” said Julisa Valencia, a junior psychology major. “I don’t have a particular view when it comes to how beneficial student government can be. I probably would vote if I knew more about the candidates or positions, it really just depends.”

Freshman Jenna Karcher, has a similar viewpoint. She has never voted, but is considering it this year.

“I do not know much about student government,” said Kracher. “I should, but I don’t. I think that it helps students get a say in the actions that take place on campus which is essential for a university,” said Kracher.

The Office of Student Government located in the Miron Student Center (MSC) is composed of the full-time undergraduate governing body and the graduate part-time student council. These boards represent the students at Kean by encouraging student feedback, student involvement and leadership roles. This organization seeks to be the voice for the student body.

“I believe that voting in student government is necessary, I mean we are able to choose who we want and what we want to see change,”said Thayssa Silva, junior. “If student government does more to be noticed and is understood as a opportunity for development that would be great for us,”

The Office of Student Government host various on and off campus events that promote social, academic, cultural and professional growth.  They also provides funding to over 20 recognized groups on campus to increase student involvement and programming.

Student Government is an organization that conducts and coordinates programs that guide and challenge students, according to Student Government President Damion Wilson.

“We also act as a liaison toward the students and the administration staff,” said Wilson.

Student Government strive to be advocates for the student body by taking ideas and concerns into consideration.

“When it comes to the professional staff we try to find ways to accommodate the students and we fix the issue right at hand,” added Wilson. “We provide a lot of resources. One of the things we provide is life support skills and events because these are some of the things you won’t learn in the classrooms. For example how do I budget, use a credit card, finance a car or finance a house.”

The student government also serves as a tool that prepares both undergraduate and graduate students for development in their field.

Hailey Cruz, president of Graduate & Part-Time Student Council assures their graduate needs are met.

“A lot of times it is difficult for graduate students because they work on days and come in the evenings. So to be helpful our meetings are at night on Fridays,Saturdays and Sundays. We want to accommodate their schedules but also provide interesting programs,” said Cruz.

Its goal is to create events and leave them with t-shirts and other perks like discounted prices for tickets.

“The undergrads recently had a program where they had a test for the GRE and that is something most students didn’t know about,” Cruz explained. “So student government actually digs deeper into student development. For graduate students we provide beverages and things for the COMP exams because we know it’s something important.”

Student government provides different programs divided into three categories: traditional, cultural and life skills. Traditional include the pep rallies and concerts, cultural include events like Chinese New Year and Black History Month and life skills include credit cards, how to finance a credit card and to prepare for life outside of Kean.

Wilson noted that it is important to have resources for commuters at Kean.

“We have our Commuter Resource Center (CRC) located in Hennings Hall where we provide printing computers and lounges so that commuters can become more involved. We do understand the difficulties with commuting so we provided this for them,” said Wilson

When speaking in terms of payment for student government and the part-time student council Wilson and Cruz were willing to share the various wages.

“We do get paid by our positions. For the president position we do ten hours a week and we get paid hourly $19.41, the vice president gets paid $13.24, our treasurer and secretary gets paid $10.29, assistant secretary and class presidents are $9.93,” said Wilson. “We would like to share that these are stipend based.”

Since graduate students have a lot on their plates like internships and scheduling, The Graduate & Part-Time Student Council have a different system.

“I get paid $22 an hour but I work a maximum of four hours a week. Then the vice president, treasurer and secretary get paid $19.61 and work a maximum of three hours a week,” said Cruz.

One important part of student government is their ambition to find student leaders and to work together.

“What sets student organization apart is that they invest in the leaders. We have a vigorous summer training where they do the Myer Briggs assessment to find our personality type and how we can work well with. This is important because in the corporate and business world that’s what they use and we can put that we have that with us,” said Cruz.

One perk is early registration which allows them to register for important classes. They also provide a lot of free food for workers and everyone is treated like an asset to the organization.

“We recently changed our title from council to Senate because that is what the undergrads strived to do. Senate is more of a power like position, with council you think of high school. When you think of Senate you think of someone who has a voice and we want them to have that voice,” Wilson explained.

Student government seeks to stand out from other schools with their events, interaction with students and faculty and the ability to share knowledge and support.

“I know from my experience a lot of students come to my from student organizations at other campuses really interested in our speakers and who we have for unity week. Also Kean is a tight knit community that allows faculty to know their student instead of numbering them,” said Cruz.

The funds for student government come from the students through activity fees, which student government uses to create events on their tradition, cultural and life skills programs.

“For both GPSC and student council they have a treasurer who works together with professional staff to insure we still have enough for the budget,” said Cruz. “For the complete control of the budget we can’t just say let’s go spend this on something. We have to get it approved through our eboard and same for the professional staff. We do have a great say so of our budget.

Elections start April 3 at 9 a.m. through April 5 at 5 p.m. via Cougarlink. On Cougarlink, students can apply for various positions such as the Student Organization Executive Board and Senate, Graduate & Part-time Student Council executive board and the P.U.L.S.E programming board.

“Depending on the position you choose and qualifications you have you will fill out the application and campaign,” said Wilson. “With campaigning you can go solo or a ticket where students can team up to get votes for each other. Then the student body will vote you in and along with campaigning it is important to have a good GPA. We understand the importance of academics and we want to make sure students understand the GPA requirements.Whatever you put into student government is what you get back,” said Wilson.

---