It’s time for elections again at Fanshawe college! This year, they’re many candidates running.
The 6 executives positions include:
- President
- VP of Finance
- VP of Internal
- VP of External
- VP of Athletics
- VP of Entertainment.
Last year only 3192 full time students voted with a school population of 21,000 full time students. So why do students elections have such a low turnout?
Matt Farrell, politics professor at Fanshawe college says it’s not only college elections with turnouts but all levels of government face this same issue.
“Student elections are really tough because the turn out for this has been historically really low. Anywhere from 2-5% on a good election. So that means for every candidate, the emphases on getting out votes is critical because every vote matters. Its basically a smaller version of provincial elections and they’ve haven’t found a way to drastically improve turnout yet.”
Some ways of trying to get the student body to vote more is by campaigning and this is done in a few ways. All candidates use posters around the school to promote what they stand for and their campaign promises. Most also use some form of social media and will spread their messages with rallies or speeches on campus.
The Fanshawe Student Union (FSU) is the backbone of the “college life”. There work may not be obvious for every student, they certainly play a major part in making sure you get the most out of your post secondary experience.This is what Morganna Sampson, Current President of FSU believes. She says that your vote affects campus life a lot more than you expect.
“Students should want to vote. It affects campus life and their experience while here. It is important because it’s a chance to make their voice heard and it will change the school in the upcoming year.The president who is voted in is going to advocate for the student body and thats a big decision to make so every student should voice their opinion by voting next week”
FSU offers a wide range of services for students. This includes events and contests, information about your bus pass, health plan and how to get involved with school events or activities. All these services are provided because of student fees. This is another reason as to why it’s important to vote next week. As a student you pay for these services in ancillary fees if you’re full-time. Sampson says the fees are under 100$ and is the reason FSU can host so many events all year long.
Students can vote for Fanshawe Student Union and Fanshawe Board of Governors election by logging into FOL between Monday, March 5th, 2018 at 9 AM and Thursday, March 8th, 2018 at 2 PM.
