By Hadassa Ferreira, Arts & Culture Editor
One of the best advantages of Saint Leo is the opportunity students have to get involved in how student programs operate on campus.
This is why Saint Leo’s Student Government Union (SGU) exists. The SGU’s mission is to provide activities, propose legislation, and allocate money to support student organizations and to improve SLU students’ overall experience.
Like any government institution, SLU’s SGU has its legislative branch, the Senate. Last Friday, Sept. 13, SGU hosted the second annual Senate Election Palooza. The event happened in the Student Activities Building (SAB) by the clock tower from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
The event’s main purpose was to gather students and assist them in their voting process using the Engage Leo portal and QR code.
The SGU’s electoral process starts with the senate applications opening on Engage Leo. On the application page, students can learn more about the SGU senate and decide whether they want to enroll.
The application stays open for some time and after that, the SGU e-board will check if all interested students meet the necessary criteria. A student must be a full-time activity fee-paying student and have a 2.5 GPA and academic standing with the university.
After that, students fill out the candidate form, which informs them about the SGU’s role and elections’ rules and procedures. After completing this step, students become official candidates and can start their campaign.
Tamar Olguin, a junior majoring in clinical psychology and SGU’s current president, expressed her enthusiasm about the new candidate pool.
Olguin said, “I was very excited! I went through all of the [applicants]names, I was looking for people who I had previously known from the Senate. But I was more excited to see new fresh faces. I wanted to push more freshmen to get involved on campus. So, I was very excited to see how everything was folding along.”
The campaign process is essential since this is the opportunity all SLU students have to meet their possible senators and decide who best aligns with their ideas for improving the campus. The initial group of candidates might be quite competitive; therefore, candidates need to highlight themselves.
One of the elected senators, Beau Wolfe, a sophomore majoring in accounting said, “At first, I was nervous because I have never campaigned, so, this year, it was new.” He also added, “At the same time, it was fun, I went out loud. I brought out Oreos, I dressed like Spiderman. I did all these things to just draw attention and get the people to come up to me.”
The Student Government Union is crucial to advocate for students’ necessities, and senators are the ones listening to what students say and working to transform some of those requests into effective changes.
Wolfe also stated, “I have known students who struggle to find out what is happening on campus. People say there is nothing to do on the weekends or nothing to do around here. But in reality, there are actually a lot of clubs and events going on. It is just that they are not put out there.” He added, “So, my idea for this year, my main goal, is to try to expose a lot of that.”
After the election pools were closed, new senators were nominated on Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2024. The Senate is composed of 20 seats, which are divided into four committees, research and marketing, philanthropy, judiciary, and appropriation.
Those students will work to turn the Saint Leo campus into the best possible college experience.
