It has been three weeks since the start of the 2021-22 academic year and Marquette University Student Government has just wrapped up their semesterly elections. This past week’s elections were held for 2021 residential senators.
Senators are in charge of coming up with legislation to be presented to administrators. They also meet with faculty and administrators to discuss concerns, plans, and facilitate events.
Adeel Raza, a first-year in the College of Business Administration who won the position of commuter senator shared his thoughts heading into the election.
“I am excited about the elections and running for the commuter senator position. I know that members of student government in Marquette make important decisions and I am happy that I can get involved on campus and represent other commuter students,” Raza said.
Elections took place Sept. 16. and results were certified and announced Sept. 17. Nicole Laudolff, legislative vice president of MUSG talked about the process that goes into elections as well as the main objectives of student government.
“The way that elections work with senators is through residential senator positions and academic senator positions. Residential seats represent residence halls, off-campus students, and commuters while academic seats represent colleges. In the fall, we elect residential senators and in the spring we elect academic senators,” Laudolff said.
One thing that is different about this year’s elections is there are many vacant seats for multiple positions. While their were nineteen residential senator seats available, thirteen seats remained vacant after election results were announced on Thursday. Members of MUSG emphasized the fact that is does not matter your major or goals and that anyone that wants to make campus a better place is right for any of these residential senator positions.
“When we look for senators and when we encourage people to run, the main thing they need to be is passionate about representing students. A lot of people when they think of student government they think that it is about politics but it is really about improving campus for everyone.” Laudolff said.
Some members of MUSG have suggested that reason there are still thirteen open seats available is because of the shift back to in person practices.
“We had a similar issue last year. I imagine part of the reason we have so many vacant seats is because of a product to the pandemic. A lot of this year’s seniors chose not to run and I imagine it is because how MUSG will be ran this year. We are back in person and following a more parliamentary meeting procedure.” Laudolff said.
While a shift to in person practices seems to have driven a lot of people away from running for residential senator seats, current members of MUSG feel that this shift will make things more exciting and even motivate MUSG more than ever in their efforts.
Katie Breck, president of MUSG, noted the changes that are going into MUSG this year to bring some normalcy into their operations.
“I would definitely say even being in the office again and having our in-person meetings brings a new renewed sense of energy and community which has pushed us to work for these events. We are looking forward to seeing many people in person safely,” Breck said.
After election results were certified by Nicole Laudolff, MUSG Executive Vice President and Dr. Jennifer Reid, Acting Assistant Vice President of Student Affairs, they were announced to the community.
William Reames will serve as Abbotsford Hall Residential while Adeel Raza will be serving as Commuter Senator. Bennet Raasch and Grace Thompson will serve Off-Campus Senators and Sean Martin will serve as the Straz Tower Senator.
For any current students who still want to get involved in Marquette University Student Government they should visit the MUSG Website.
This story was written by TJ Dysart. He can be reached at [email protected]
