On Saturday, Mar. 10 junior Haley DeGreve and sophomore Carl Frasor announced they would be running for Student Government president and vice president unopposed.
Their main platform point is servant leadership, which focuses on providing for the needs of the students and giving them a voice over pushing an agenda.
Vice presidential candidate Carl Frasor, current sophomore and secretary of SGA, explains the importance of the election as it impacts students. “Students should care about their voices being heard and that’s what we’re doing through this campaign.”
Their other three platform points are student wellness, campus unity and senate reform.
In regard to student wellness, DeGreve and Frasor will focus on improving the mental, physical and emotional health of students by continuing The Gray Matters movement and pushing for an on campus clinic. The goal of campus unity is to give students who feel excluded or underrepresented a voice through communication and popup advocacy tables in residential halls. Finally, senate reform focuses on internal improvements to SGA to help make changes happen more efficiently.
However, an unopposed election is a unique circumstance for both candidates and students. Without any competition, many students don’t see the purpose of asking questions and voting. Because of this, the candidates can struggle throughout the campaign process to connect with students, a key factor in the success of their platform.
“When there is competition in an election there is more student engagement, and I like that aspect of it,” Haley DeGreve, current junior senator and wellness committee chair of SGA, said. “I do think it’s good to be challenged and to challenge other people about the issues on campus.”
DeGreve said that the new 300 signature requirement played a role in only having one ticket on the ballot. “I think it definitely deters people,” DeGreve said. “I think people don’t want to put in that much work to get signatures. The idea [behind the changes] was that more people would run, but it didn’t work as well as they thought.”
Senior Ethan Conley-Keck also said that these changes are the reason there is only one ticket this year. He also believes that the Greek system holds a large influence on these elections and prevents other voices on campus from being heard.
“Greek life has a lot of say in how campus culture shapes,” Conley said. With 40 percent of campus involved, it’s a powerful way to rally support for a campaign. While someone who is not involved in Greek life may not run because the task is much more daunting.
Frasor and DeGreve are both involved in Greek life and approached their respective Greek groups to get the 300 signatures. Frasor, however, said that these connections do not give them an advantage.
“You do make a lot of connections that way, but you also make connections through other student groups on campus,” Frasor said. “It’s about getting to know people and having people that would support you.”
In the end, Greek life is a loud and powerful voice on campus and those not involved can feel excluded. Conley-Keck said, “It can be hard for some people to get a say in SGA because they’re on the outside. But they deserve that representation and they deserve to be able to communicate with their representatives.”
Combatting this division on campus is one of the main goals of DeGreve and Frasor’s campaign. “I think there are a lot of people on campus that don’t feel included and a lot of people that don’t have a voice,” DeGreve said.
“At the core of our platform is making sure that the students are heard,” Frasor said. “It’s student wellness, senate reform that provides better input for the students, it’s reaching out to students and doing more student advocacy.”
Their overall goal is to make SGA the best it can be and make every student’s experience at Augie better. “We have a passion for this organization, we’re learning to understand students and what they need,” DeGreve said.