Student Government Association elections saw a major spike in voters this year, with a total of 568 students—more than its had in the last eight semesters. According to SGA adviser Ian Crone, the recent push to budget organizations such as Black Student Union (BSU) and Habitat for Humanity, brought more voters to the table.
Despite the increase in voters, only 16 of the 17 open seats for the SGA board were filled.
According to recently elected SGA Vice President of Marketing, Ben Kaplan, interest in SGA leadership positions isn’t as high as it would be on other campuses.
“Half the school are commuters so interest in general elections [isn’t as high as at other schools],” said Kaplan.
While majority of the EC campus, about 62 percent, is female, only about 44 percent of the SGA board is female.
Furthermore, nine out of 16 of elected SGA board members are Greek affiliated, slightly more than half.
Most EC students, however, are not involved in Greek life, with six percent of males in fraternities, and 10 percent of females in sororities.
“It’s not uncommon to see,” said Crone, regarding the predominantly Greek affiliated board.
Both Crone and Mark Weeden, the most recently elected SGA president, agreed that students who are interested in leadership positions are often times Greek affiliated. This has also been the case before, with past two SGA presidents also being members of Greek life.
Graphics by Sarah Schauf
