Voting for presidential election open April 4 through April 8

This week the student body has a chance to weigh in on who they feel will represent their best interests to administration. The way the student body votes will decide the future of SGA leadership.

This year, Cheboygan junior Ian Elliott and Owosso sophomore Andrew Zyrowski are running for SGA president.

Accompanying Elliott on his ticket as his vice presidential candidate is Lake Orion senior Jazmin Biernat. Austin Blessing, a White Lake junior, is Zyrowski’s candidate for vice president.

“I want to eventually make my post collegiate life a life of public service and serve people because I want to give back to my community,” Zyrowski said. “This university has given me so much and the student body means so much to me I want to ensure (the student body is) heard and represented.”

Prior to running for president, Zyrowski served as the SGA representative for CMU College Republicans and Sweeney Hall. He is now the SGA house leader.

Elliott also has SGA experience, serving as former house and senate member. As a freshman, he created the student organization Student Advocates for the Medical and Responsible use of Cannabis. He is serving as the SGA-appointed liaison between students and the Mount Pleasant city government.

“I’ve heard the voices outside of SGA who have been affected in a positive way, but also dissenting opinions, the ones who ask what SGA does for (the student body),” Elliott said. “Working in SGA for three years and hearing those sentiments on the outside, I can start to connect what it is we need to do to make those dissenting voices more appreciative of SGA’s services. (My time) in SGA has given me the skill set and the background to be that person.”

What it means to be president

The role of the president is to oversee SGA as a whole, much like how the goal of the President of the United States is to make sure all parts of government are running smoothly, Zyrowski said.

“Whether that’s meeting with faculty or heads of student run organizations, it’s (important to) represent student government externally (outside of SGA),” he said.

When it comes down to it, they don’t have much power outside of that. Both the president and vice president receive 24 free credit hours per academic year.

“The job (of SGA president) is to represent students and to make sure their interests are publicly and privately brought forward and supported by their leadership,” said Shaun Holtgreive, executive director of student affairs. “If you have an organization that’s out of touch with the campus and the administration sees that, it’s very difficult for ideas to be advocated as strongly if the student voice isn’t united in that.”

The student-run group has existed since 1920 and serves as the bridge between university administration and students.

Behind the scenes, SGA has helped to originally establish Gentle Thursday and Friday in the late 1960s, secure funding for student organizations and is trying to support an effort to build a Gender Equity Center on campus.

SGA asks students what they would like to see changed on campus, and works to draft legislation that indicates their support. Once a piece of legislation is created and approved by both the SGA house and senate, the legislation’s creator works with university administration to help see that legislation become reality. This could take anywhere from a few months to several years.

Holtgreive serves as SGA’s adviser, acting as a mentor to the incoming administration each year. He said he doesn’t tell the organization what to do, but rather is a reference point for presidents to use when they need to get in contact with other members of administration.

Elliott and Zyrowski agree — the pretense of a student government is needed on campus.

Zyrowski and Blessing are running on a platform comprised four major points: growing and diversifying SGA as a whole, increasing transparency between university administration and students, working with Parking Services so as not to “oversell lots” and allowing for students to be absent on federal election days.

The two also want to make sure campus is handicap accessible and SGA continues to work with Mount Pleasant city officials to improve city-student relations.

While Zyrowski acknowledges some of his platform points are lofty goals — particularly in regards to what he refers to as a “parking problem” on campus — Blessing said if their goals were easily attained, they wouldn’t be effective student leaders.

“These (platform points) are large ideas and they might take some time to accomplish,” Blessing said. “However, if you only focus on the ideas that can be accomplished in a matter of months, you’re ignoring the most important ideas (to students). It’s important to make tangible, quick change but making progress toward larger issues (like parking and student-city relations) piece by piece, we’re still making progress.”

Blessing’s SGA experience includes serving as a senator and vice chair of the governmental affairs committee.

Elliott is running on a similar platform.

He and Biernat have four major policy points they hope to accomplish if elected: the creation of an on-campus Gender Equity Center, improving transparency in communication between administration and students, continuing to improve student-city relations and working to register voters on-campus at freshman orientation.

Like Elliott, Biernat also has SGA experience, serving as the governmental affairs committee chair. Biernat has also worked as a reporter and news anchor at News Central 34.

The two said talking about problems and having lofty goals isn’t wholly what students need.

“Talking is easy. You don’t start making change on top of an ivory tower looking at things conceptually,” Elliott said. “You have to go to the very root of a problem, figure out how it occurred and define the problems that result (because of it). The talking is necessary with people who make the decisions, but some sort of tangible solution has to come out of those situations. That’s where we feel we can make a difference for CMU.”

Caught in a stand-off

The point of SGA is to represent the wishes of the student body to administration. When students don’t come to SGA meetings or participate in campus-wide events like presidential voting, there’s only so much SGA administration can do, Elliott said.

“If we’re given the power to be the voice of students by the students, we’re only as powerful or as strong in those meetings as the (university) administration sees us,” he said. “There comes a point where we really are just communicators.”

During the last two years, SGA has had difficulty keeping its senate full. Underclassmen members generally fill open spots at the start of each new semester.

Voter turn out for the SGA presidential election has also fluctuated during the last five years.

SGA President Chuck Mahone said in the 2012 election, there were five candidates and more than 2,000 student votes. Last year, because he was the only candidate on the ticket, Mahone said it “wasn’t surprising” only 686 people voted.

In the 2010 SGA presidential election, 2,121 students voted — 9.9 percent of the student population. Last year’s election, however, had the second lowest turn out in the last five years.

The fluctuations depend largely on the number of candidates running for president, Mahone said.

“If you look at how many people are running, the number of student voters increases when the tickets get bigger,” he said.

Some students feel SGA hasn’t made enough of an effort to reach out to them.

Goodrich junior Amy Hammermeister said she’s never encountered anyone who belongs to SGA.

“If they held (and advertised) more informational meetings and events, I think that would be helpful for students who want to get involved,” she said.

More promotion on social media would be helpful said Jackson junior Jake Kughn.

“I’m on social media a lot of the time, so having an (increased presence) in there would be a good way to reach students,” he said.

Mahone said the organization doesn’t have the ability to send out school-wide emails because SGA doesn’t have access to the university email distribution interface LISTSERV. Instead, the organization relies on its social media presence.

As of April 3, SGA has 1,496 likes on Facebook and 1,825 followers on Twitter.

Elliott maintains, however, there’s only so much the organization can do. When students aren’t interested in SGA, there’s no real way to represent them.

“There are a lot of students who are apathetic to the (SGA) process. They have tunnel vision for whatever it is their goals are here on campus,” Elliott said.