Can I confess a secret? I think I’ve become a little too invested in FSU’s Student Government Association (SGA). Am I involved in student government in any capacity? No! Does that matter to me? Absolutely not!
Here’s the thing about SGA: it might seem meaningless to those not involved in it, but we put real money into the hands of these elected student leaders.
So, if we’re going to choose students to use our tuition money for decisions about what happens on our campus, we should be making informed and conscious choices about what people and policies we’re voting for.
What is SGA?
Fun fact: SGA is set up in a way that makes my head hurt. I’m going to try and explain the relevant information to the best of my ability, so stick with me for now. I promise it helps to understand SGA structurally before we start talking about the specifics.
SGA is the collection of our elected and appointed student representatives. It can be divided into three branches: the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch. As you likely noticed, this is a deliberate parallel to the US governmental structures.
Election cycles may also include candidates running for Union Board, which is SGA’s liaison to the FSU Student Union, the Campus Recreation Board — which serves a similar role but for FSU’s Campus Recreation Services — and the Senior Class Council, which represents the senior class.
This fall, elections will consist of the odd-numbered seats in the Student Senate and the Campus Recreation Board. Elections in the spring will have the even-numbered Senate seats, the Union Board, the Senior Class Council, and the executive branch “Big Three” ticket of Student Body President, Vice President, and Treasurer.
With elections coming up on Wednesday, Oct. 16, it’s important to know what these different boards do, who is running, and how to cast your vote. Don’t worry — it’s not as complicated as it seems!
Student senate
The Student Senate is comprised of 80 senators who represent the different colleges on FSU’s campus, running for seats housed in the college of their major. The only exception to this is Undergraduate Studies, which has two seats that are reserved for exploratory majors.
The Student Senate has the important job of writing and passing legislation that can have a direct and notable impact on the university and student life.
They manage a multi-million-dollar budget, partially financed with money from our tuition, and are responsible for determining what that money funds.
Campus Recreation Board
The official FSU Campus Recreation website describes the board as a collection of “…Elected [student] representatives who are the voice of the student body as it relates to Campus Recreation’s facilities and programs.”
FSU Campus Recreation covers everything from the Leach to Intramural and Club Sports to outdoor activities like Outdoor Pursuits and the FSU Lakefront Park (aka “The Rez”).
The board has eight student members who each have a specific job. There’s a Chair, a Vice Chair, and Liaisons to the seven departments within Campus Recreation.
SGA Political Parties
There are two SGA political parties at FSU: ForwardFSU and SurgeFSU. For each election cycle, both parties run a full slate of candidates for the eligible categories.
With the exception of the slates for the “Big Three” Executive Branch positions and occasionally the Senior Class Council, candidates run on their party’s platform but without anything to distinguish them from one another.
Sure, when you vote, you’re selecting a particular candidate per seat. But we as voters don’t see any of these candidate’s qualifications, experiences, or other pertinent information that could determine whether they deserve our votes.
Rather than voting based on the candidates themselves, students are typically encouraged to vote for one party or another “down the ballot.” This makes knowing each party’s platform the most important part of election season (aside from actually casting your votes).
By now, both parties have shared their platform points for this fall on their Instagram pages, highlighting what they hope to accomplish by being elected. Before you vote, make sure to take a look at what both ForwardFSU and SurgeFSU have listed and find what resonates with you.
Fall 2024 Elections
In the SGA elections happening this week, you’ll be voting for the odd-numbered seats in the Student Senate that fall within your college and all the seats on the Campus Recreation Board.
The link to vote will be sent directly to the inbox of your FSU email on Wednesday, with voting open from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. They’ll announce the results of the election that same day after the voting has closed.
Why should you care?
As I’ve learned from experience, sometimes it’s difficult to convince people they should care about student government.
But, as I explain to my friends every semester when I inevitably end up peer pressuring them into casting their votes, we put our actual money into these student’s hands and leave it up to them to decide what they want to focus on.
Don’t you want a say in that decision? Don’t you want the choices they make to be choices you agree with? Don’t you want them to fight for the same things you want them to fight for?
These seats will be filled regardless of whether any one of us votes. But when we don’t cast our votes for the policies and people we want to see in SGA, we’ve walked away from our right to have a voice on campus.
During last year’s fall election, the marketing materials published on the official FSU SGA and Student Senate Instagram pages noted that in the spring election prior, “…a number of races were won by 10 votes or fewer.”
Your voice matters. Do your research and make sure to cast your votes this Wednesday. The change you want to see on this campus could very well start with you.
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