SA to work on increasing voter turnout, student engagement for next elections

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Leading up to its spring semester general elections, Syracuse University’s Student Association said it will put a greater internal emphasis on increasing voter turnout and student engagement.

Otto Sutton, SA’s Board of Elections chair, described the organization’s ongoing issues with participation in its elections, citing a lack of awareness among the student body. Sutton said these struggles are “frustrating.”

SA saw a decrease in voter turnout in its last general election. With a voter turnout of about 5.61%, or 863 students, participation in SA’s spring elections has decreased by around four percentage points since 2022. Sutton said he partially attributes the decrease in student voting to SA’s lack of advertising, which he plans to address with increased promotional materials.

“I think (SA) just needs to go back and do some of the basics,” Sutton said. “Starting these promotions earlier is going to be incredibly important as well as means of eventually getting people to vote.”

Sutton said SA wants to “enhance” its marketing tactics. The association is actively working with the university to put election posters in residence halls. The new posters will highlight several important dates throughout the election season, such as the deadlines for candidacy petitions, he said.

In preparation for the elections, SA filled several open seats in its internal Board of Election during Monday’s meeting. It is still accepting applications for other open positions. Sutton said he hopes these “future generations” of SA leadership will also bring in new ideas to promote engagement with the organization.

Along with improving voter turnout, Sutton said he hopes these changes will inspire more candidates to join the race, which, in turn, would inspire more students to vote.

“I think more competitive races will hopefully bring greater attention to the entire process,” Sutton said.

Several SA leaders emphasized the need to increase student engagement with their organization during last Monday’s meeting. Since students are not aware of the “impact” of SA, they are not motivated to engage with the resources it offers, Sutton said.

To increase the community’s understanding of SA’s role on campus, the organization will hold Student Association on Tour — an initiative that will send SA leaders to several registered student organizations on campus to raise awareness as to how it can advocate for students.

SA President William Treloar introduced the first SA on Tour event in April 2023. This year, the association plans to hold the initiative earlier to ensure it can reach more students before the spring elections, German Nolivos, SA’s vice president of community & government affairs, said.

Nolivos said the association is in the early stages of planning the initiative and will send invitations to recognized student organizations within the next few weeks. It has already assigned representatives from the organization to present short, 10 to 15-minute presentations about SA’s role on campus.

“One of the main problems with our relationship with the campus community is that not a lot of people know what Student Association is and how much we can impact their lives as students,” Nolivos said.

Nolivos said SA has not yet sent out invitations to organizations but plans to do so soon. He also said that through this initiative, the association wants to reach its goal of speaking to 1,000 students across their respective RSOs.

SA is also seeking to collaborate with the advisors of SU’s First-Year Seminar course to add information about the association’s student advocacy goals to the curriculum, Nolivos said. The collaboration would include presenting a video to explain their ongoing initiatives. He said SA will also post this video to its website and social media accounts.

While SA is still in the “beginning stages” of increasing student engagement on campus, it plans to also bring back several of its annual initiatives for the spring with a few changes, Nolivos said.

This semester, SA will host its annual Spring Into Action — a series of events offering several volunteer opportunities to all SU and SUNY ESF students. While these events are typically held over one week, Nolivos said SA will now schedule Spring Into Action initiatives throughout the semester to account for inclement weather.

SA also plans to hold its annual Multicultural Week later this spring. Nolivos said SA will release more information about this event at a later date. He described this week as his “favorite” of the semester.

As SA’s campus engagement efforts continue, students can expect more information about its spring 2024 elections in the coming weeks, Nolivos said. Petitions for the cycle will open on Feb. 5 and will remain open for a month. After reviewing and vetting petitions, the election will open in April.

“Little by little, we are trying to change the culture on campus in how people perceive Student Association,” Nolivos said.