On Tuesday, the online poll for the University Council Student Representative opened and will remain open until Thursday, April 19.
The two candidates running for the position are Mia Jorgensen, an anthropology graduate student, and Daniel Ovadia, a junior business major. Both want to represent UB's entire student body on a board that consists of nine governor-appointed members. The student representative is elected annually by a university-wide student vote.
However, both candidates are taking part in an election process with a notoriously low voter turnout.
Jorgensen is the incumbent - last year she received 259 votes. Her opponent, Joshua Boston, received 231 votes. Less than 2 percent of the entire student body opted to vote in last year's election.
TC Scott, chair of the University Council Representative Election Committee, thinks the lack of voter participation stems largely from ignorance.
"Not a lot of students know what the University Council rep does," Scott said. "They represent the student voice on the University Council, which makes decisions that impact the university. It's really important to have student input."
The UB Council oversees UB's advisory board, president, and senior officers. The council exists in accordance with New York State education law. The nine members appointed by the governor serve seven-year terms, and the council is chaired by Jeremy M. Jacobs of Delaware North Companies, Inc. Other notable members are Robert T. Brad of Moog, Inc. and Mark J. Czarnecki of M&T Bank.
The council's duties include reviewing all major plans and activities of the university, as well as making recommendations and regulations regarding community and alumni relations. While not a frequent occurrence, one of the council's most important responsibilities is to recommend presidential candidates (when the position is open) to state university trustees.
"The council makes major decisions that impact the university in the way that it advises the president and key figures at the university," Ovadia said. "Because their input is so critical and because these people are all people who have a vested interest in seeing UB successful, what they say holds a tremendous deal of weight."
Ovadia also stressed the importance of the representative within the council, as he or she reflects student perspective and input; the other members of the council are "people that are very far removed from the student experience," according to Ovadia.
Jorgensen thinks it's important for students to vote because, in that way, they will know what the UB Council is. She also feels that voting creates a more communal atmosphere on campus.
"I think we could all benefit from having UB be a stronger community," Jorgensen said. "At UB it seems [as students], we could communicate a lot more and we really need to work on building this one element."
Mike Lewis, the student government liaison, said the election committee has been trying to generate a higher voting population. The committee has reached out to media sources, emailed students through listservs, and utilized the student experience website - all in efforts to get word out about the importance of voting in this election.
"Voter turnout in recent years has been a problem for most elections here at the university," Lewis said.
Scott feels one of things that needs to be done for the sake of future elections is to educate the student body on what the role of the student representative is - a responsibility he thinks falls on whoever wins the position.
Students can vote by visiting the Student Affairs website. The polls will close at 5 p.m. on Thursday. The unofficial results will be available online on Friday, but the official results will be released by the elections committee on Monday.
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
