On Sept. 9-12, Student Government held their fall elections by sending out an email to students with a link to their ballot. Student Government was looking to fill 10 voting senator positions and four incoming senator positions, and they had 13 individuals run for their fall elections. The incoming senators are Victor Wei, Ethan Kershaw, Joshna Karki and Kiren MacLeod. The voting senators are Ireti Rotimi, Emily Smith, Josh German, Jose Reyes, Jesse Wren, Luke Rascher, Alexandra Crawford, Paul Wuennenberg and Jacob Bichsel.
Jared Kolok, speaker of the Student Senate, said he enjoyed talking with interested students and getting to know freshmen and their desires for Student Government.
Kolok said he has wanted to work on elections since his sophomore year and student government has given him a new insight into elections, organizational skills and getting the student body involved with student government.
“The nature of my job as speaker of the Student Senate, and thus the neutral member of Student Government, made me the logical choice for running elections,” Kolok said.
Kolok said that it is unfortunate to have open positions and wants the organization to have a wider range of representation. He said he is excited by the new members as well as the potential and eagerness they have for making changes at Truman State University.
Student Government President Deanna Schmidt said their organization recognizes that Student Government is not everyone’s top choice when it comes to getting involved.
“This year in particular we were worried going into the election cycle due to our high number of open positions, low enrollment and trends in student involvement that we’ve been hearing about, so we were very happy to have gotten this much interest in running,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt said 386 students voted over the four days the polls were open and that voter turnout was average compared to their previous election cycles.
“As President of Student Government this year, I’ve really enjoyed taking an active role in helping with whatever our body needs help or guidance with, and because of low numbers at the beginning of this year, I was very excited to help with elections,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt said this year the Executive Board was able to become closer as an organization because of working together on the elections and reaching out to students.