ASUO presenters far outnumbered interested students at the first ASUO elections meeting of the year Tuesday, but organizers said they are still optimistic about their ability to raise participation in time for the April elections.
The elections committee reserved the high-ceilinged EMU Gumwood Room and set out 96 chairs in front of the projection screen. Pizzas were stacked on a table in the back corner alongside one-liter bottles of soda and paper cups and plates. Despite the preparations, only six students showed up to receive campaign information.
“It’s good to see people interested. We just need to keep reaching out to other groups,” elections coordinator Aaron Tuttle said.
Students are first allowed to formally declare their candidacies on Feb. 25. Though the elections packet Tuttle passed around indicated there are 28 open positions, he said that figure is subject to change if candidates leave office. It included 14 Senate seats, following ASUO Sen. Michael Latteri’s announcement Monday that he would resign his position at the end of this school year.
Tuttle said those who are already involved in campus politics would not need to attend the meeting because they already know most of the information he presented, and they are likely to file their papers close to the March 11 deadline.
Most of the current ASUO officeholders who did show up did so to speak about the opportunities presented by the ASUO. Sens. Emma Kallaway and Nick Schultz and Department Finance Committee member Brendan Good explained the role of finance committees, while ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz and Vice-President Johnny Delashaw spoke about their jobs.
“You’re pretty much your own boss,” Dotters-Katz said of his position. “Sometimes it’s hard. I mean, as most of you probably know, there was a 15- to 20-percent turnout in the last election.”
ASUO intern Robert Greene was the only student heavily involved in the ASUO who appeared at the meeting for the express purpose of gaining information about the election. Greene said he hadn’t decided whether he intended to run for the Senate or involve himself in a presidential campaign in hopes of gaining a staff position in next year’s ASUO Executive.
“I’m just hoping to get involved somehow,” Greene said.
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