USUSA officers defend decision to pass amendment during finals week

Approximately one percent of the student body passed an amendment during finals week, which added the Student Alumni Association president to the USUSA Executive Council.

The special election, held by USUSA, saw a total of 237 students vote, with 150 in favor and 87 against.

“Voter turnout was a direct reflection of when the vote was held,” said USUSA President Trevor Sean Olsen. “Students were focused on their finals, and rightfully so.”

While he stated the timing was not ideal, Olsen believed it was necessary.

“If we waited until next school year, we would have lost four months of work and collaboration,” he said. “Before we moved forward in the planning, we needed to know whether students actually wanted the change or not.”

Typical voter turnout in USUSA elections falls between 10 and 20 percent of the student body. The last constitutional change, voted on during the 2015-2016 USUSA officer election, received 3,570 votes.

Olsen and the rest of the USUSA officers were inaugurated April 17, giving them two business days to plan the election before notifying the student body through a mass email on April 22.

Given this time frame, USUSA Public Relations and Marketing Director Madison Maners was happy the election saw as many students vote as it did.

“In the future, I plan to give ourselves more time,” Maners said. “We keep talking about time, but it really makes a huge difference when you’re dealing with things like informing a huge student body population about decisions that will affect them.”

In addition to the mass email sent to all students, USUSA notified the student body by publishing a column and advertisement in the Utah Statesman and posting on social media.

“Utah State is an awesome ‘Twitter campus’ and we really relied on fellow Aggies to spread the word,” Maners said.

Olsen and Maners would both like to have more face-to-face interaction with students in future elections.

“It is easy for students to see information online and make a mental note to take action but get distracted by another post or another tweet,” Olsen said. “It’s something I do all the time.”

Olsen said he was happy to see students go out of their way to get their voices heard during one of the most stressful times of the year, but he would have liked to see more students get involved.

“I would like to let students know that their vote does matter,” Olsen said. “This past elections cycle we had many close races and every vote really did count … Whether you oppose the proposed changes or agree with them, it’s important to get involved.”

The amendment changed Student Alumni Association president from an appointed position to an elected one. Current appointed SAA President Oakman Kennedy will be incorporated into this school year’s executive council as a non-voting member.

“This works well for students,” Kennedy said. “A lot of the issues executive council speaks on affects alumni … and advocating for alumni hasn’t really been considered in the past.”

Though Kennedy finds changing SAA president from appointment to election to be “a little worrisome,” he is ultimately in favor of the change, believing a lot of good can come from allowing students to be more involved with SAA.

“Students don’t understand how much this could do for them,” Kennedy said. “The election had to happen when it happened to make sure students can get the benefits of it.”

Student Alumni Association president will be added to the ballot starting in the 2016 USUSA elections. The rest of the positions in SAA will continue to be filled by appointment only.

— reid.al73@gmail.com