SU’s Student Association appoints new Board of Elections Commission members

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Syracuse University’s Student Association kicked off this week’s student elections by appointing new members to its Board of Elections Commission on Monday. The group is tasked with verifying the upcoming election results in an unbiased manner.

SA unanimously voted to add five students to the commission. Kempton Bohn, Thalia Benton-Dinneen, Mason Burley, Justin Ockun and Sydney Durand will oversee this semester’s elections to fill vacant Assembly positions.

“They’re a passionate group. They have a lot of great ideas,” said Otto Sutton, SA’s Board of Elections chair. “It’s exciting to have five candidates … five people who are genuinely interested in joining the Board of Elections.”

SA began elections to fill open seats for its Assembly on Monday. SU and SUNY ESF students can vote for first-year representatives, at-large representatives and representatives for each of SU’s individual schools.

Sutton said SA plans to elect approximately 19 new assembly representatives during this election cycle. Voting will remain open until Friday at 11:59 p.m.

Sutton also said he plans for general SA members to work alongside the BOE to increase voter turnout this election, something multiple SA leaders said has been lacking in past election cycles.

The new BOE members each addressed SA members prior to their appointment. Several highlighted their plans to increase student engagement in elections.

“Let’s be real, people are not going to read long paragraphs about why they should vote,” Burley said. “We should absolutely be more short, sweet and personable.”

Bohn said she hopes SA will put a greater emphasis on using social media platforms, such as TikTok, to promote future elections.

Along with appointing new BOE members, SA members solidified upcoming planned initiatives for the rest of the fall semester. Members reviewed this semester’s registered student organization request allocation budget and appointed two new associate justices, Gustavo Madero and Bijan Starr, to the SA Supreme Court.

Anna Ginelli, SA’s Speaker of the Assembly, said the organization is putting an emphasis on getting more first-year students involved during this election period; four of the new BOE members are freshmen and the rest of Monday’s appointees were sophomores.

“As of right now, we don’t have many freshmen,” Ginelli said. “We’re really excited to have new members join.”

Other Business:

• On Wednesday, SA will hold a Narcan training with the National Prevention Network.
• On Thursday, SA will host an International and Multicultural Student Town Hall.
• SA will hold its annual Mental Health Awareness Week from Oct. 2 to Oct. 6, alongside representatives from the Barnes Center at The Arch. The week will feature an “Amped Up for Mental Health” benefit concert on Oct. 5.
• SA will host its “No Problem Too Small” forum on Oct. 3 to allow students to express potential concerns for the SU Board of Trustees report.
• Chet Guenther, a representative from the New York Public Interest Research Group, promoted NYPIRG’s Voter Registration Project, which will host a kickoff event on Oct. 5.
• SA approved a budget for their second annual Fall Harvest Festival, which was reduced to one-third of last year’s. The festival will be held on Oct. 28.