How the campus closure will affect the campaign for next year’s Student Body President and Vice President
With campus closed and virtual learning in full effect, there are many questions concerning how business will operate as usual at North Dakota State University. One question is how elections for Student Body President and Vice President will be held. Though by now the candidates would have started campaigning, this year will have a different outlook.
Current Student Body President, Mason Rademacher, and Student Body Vice President Joseph Vollmer spoke about how the elections will run this year and how they are finishing off their term.
Rademacher said that though candidates typically spend two weeks meeting with an abundance of student organizations, candidates will now take a different approach.
“As students will be unable to directly hear from the candidates themselves, a part of the process I believe to be extremely important, I feel as if students may not be as engaged in the election process this year as they have been previously.”
Mason Rademacher, Student Body President
“Due to the recent events, they will instead be focusing on delivering their message to the campus community online,” Rademacher said.
Generally, students are able to listen to the candidates’ plans of action at the student body president debate hosted by the Student Court, but that had to be canceled as well. Rademacher and Vollmer encourage students to check out the candidates’ social media platforms to learn more about how they plan to serve the student body and email them directly with any questions.
Adding to that, Rademacher said student voting will be held online as it has been done in previous years. Voting will take place on April 7 starting at 8 a.m. and will end on April 8 at 5 p.m. Students can find the voting link on Student Governments Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages.
With the changes to the election process, Rademacher stresses how involved students will be when it comes to learning about their next students leaders and voting.
“As students will be unable to directly hear from the candidates themselves, a part of the process I believe to be extremely important, I feel as if students may not be as engaged in the election process this year as they have been previously.”
Rademacher and Vollmer remain hopeful, however, that students will still show interest in their next elected leaders and engage in the voting process.
As the end of the semester is nearing, Rademacher and Vollmer also reflected on the work they’ve accomplished throughout the school year as their term comes to an end.
“Joe and I are very proud of the work we were able to complete in the shortened time we had as Student Body President and Vice President,” Rademacher said.
“I believe we laid the groundwork for successes to continue into the future. We developed and enhanced strong relationships between Student Government, administration and the various student-focused departments across campus that will allow the next administration to continue where we left off and strive to accomplish their platform points.” Rademacher said.
Rademacher and Vollmer were initially planning on addressing student engagement opportunities, but with the campus community shifting online, Rademacher said they had to make adjustments to their original plans. Now Rademacher and Vollmer are preparing for the transition to the next administration and executives.
This year’s candidates for the presidential race are Matthew Friedmann and Kylee Arndt. For the senatorial races, Elvis Velazquez, Morgan Hovde and Eric Solberg are running for the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. For the College of Engineering, McKenna Warcken and Gavin Samp are running. Finally, for the College of Human Sciences and Education, the candidates are Jacob Anderson and Cohl Ringler.
Students can stay up-to-date on Student Government news by checking out the Student Government website (https://www.ndsu.edu/sg/) as well as their Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Rademacher also said that students can still get in contact with them if they have any student concerns, comments or questions.