The Behrend Student Government Association is holding their elections in the upcoming week. Students will be campaigning Sept. 17 through 19, and elections will run Sept. 20 and 21. The full ballot will be available when the Behrend IT Department sends out a link for the polls.

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President John Jarecki said he will also be notifying the student body when voting begins. Six senate seats are open, according to Jarecki, and seven candidates are running this coming week to fill them.

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   “I would hope that the candidates ... are always focused on the students that they know, and I hope that they’ve got an urge to represent those students,” said Jarecki. His seat will not be up for election until the Spring semester.

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However, a number of the senators operating alongside him will be campaigning to stay in their seats for another year. Jarecki continued on to say, “I see it all the time, where people will get in, they’ll be successful senators, but then they’ll only be talking about what they want…Don’t just [get elected] because you want to get your opinions out in an echo chamber, because that’s not what student government is.”

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Ideally, the student body alone would guide the new student government. However, many of those voices are not as informed about the actions of Behrend’s governing body as it may seem.

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“I don’t even know what the student government does. I just hope they make sure the clubs run smoothly,” said Michael Kramer, a freshman aerospace engineering major, when asked what he expected from the SGA.

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Several other students, when questioned, were similarly unaware of the roles that the student government has on campus. This could be attributed to the fact that the SGA has strict rules attached to their ability to advertise their candidacy. The Campaigning Rules section of the election guide outlines that neither candidates or their supporters are allowed to use sidewalk chalk anywhere on campus, hang fliers in residential areas, or knock on dormitory doors while campaigning. Similarly, an individual must be sponsored by 25 fellow students before they can even be considered for candidacy. One tool that the SGA uses to combat this, and to alleviate pressure on the student body, is to utilise in-house elections--these consist of the sitting senators voting on the candidates that will eventually occupy the vacant Senate seats.

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This new round of elections could stand to increase the awareness of the SGA’s role on campus and to get students who are new at Behrend more involved.

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The divide between student and student government could be a developing concern for upcoming representatives look for a chance to better the Behrend campus.