Congratulations to the Shah-Mabalatan ticket for winning this year’s Student Government Association (SGA) election! You guys deserve it and we at The Setonian know that you will do everything in your collective ability to serve the student body during the 2019-2020 academic year. We wish you nothing but the best. To the elected at-large senators, and all the other senators who were elected this past Tuesday, congratulations to you as well.
Despite the happy ending for the Shah-Mabalatan ticket, it’s no secret that this year’s SGA election left much to be desired, especially in terms of choices. Besides President Rishi Shah’s incumbency as president being challenged, every other seat in SGA’s senate ran unopposed, from the executive board down to the specific schools' senators.
In past years, this has not been the case. In last year’s SGA election for example, two different tickets ran for election for the executive board positions: the Shah-DeBonis ticket and Martinez-Da Cruz ticket. Ultimately, the Shah-DeBonis ticket won and have been serving through this academic year, but the point is, the Seton Hall student body had more options. The at-large senate seats were also challenged as well as the seats from the individual schools.
The amount of people running for student government last year should not be lauded, however. Though there were more options, the amount of them was still disheartening, and this year it was worse.
Seton Hall students should have more choices when it comes to who is representing them in the student body. Though Rishi Shah was challenged by Anthony Chen this year (who, by the way, led a very convincing, well-rounded campaign) the representatives were already basically decided before election day even came around.
Participation in student government is imperative, especially in today’s political climate. Political involvement starts on small levels and rises all the way up to the national level. If we start small, it emboldens us to go bigger. If we learn the basics of government in college, it may inspire us to run for office someday, or even just go to a protest. If our student government can’t inspire us to do that, who can?
In conclusion, congrats again to the Shah-Mabalatan ticket, but next year, let’s have more of a choice in the matter.
The Voice is intended to best represent the collective opinion of The Editorial Board. It is written by The Setonian’s Editor-in-Chief.
