SA fills seats in board of elections, USen at first meeting of spring semester

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Syracuse University’s Student Association voted to add four new members to its Board of Elections Commission during its first meeting of the spring semester Monday. It also filled two more undergraduate seats in the University Senate.

SA voted to add Thalia Benton-Dinneen, Mason Burley, Sydney Durand and Manas Kathir to the BOE ahead of its general spring elections, which will be held in April. The students will work with a group of students dedicated to promoting SA’s elections and verifying its results. The association also added Ryan St Jean and Haley Westlund to USen.

Otto Sutton, SA’s Board of Elections chair, presented the assembly with a tentative schedule for the spring elections. Petitions will open on Feb. 5 and will remain open until March 4 at midnight, he said. Voting will take place during the first week of April.

“Our biggest goal is really getting and building out a comprehensive voter engagement organization for students on campus,” Sutton, who was reappointed to his position during Monday’s meeting, said.

Sutton discussed changes to the ways SA promotes itself on campus. He believes the association does not have sufficient signage for the SA recruitment process. He mentioned putting up posters in residential halls that indicate when election week is, and having more informational QR codes regarding election week.

SA will also hold several internal elections, which Sutton initially announced in a Dec. 4 email. It is accepting applications from all students “on a rolling basis,” Sutton said.

Sutton also introduced revisions to its internal BOE code, which SA will vote on during next week’s meeting.

Monday’s meeting also marked Kennedy Williams’ first as SA’s speaker of the assembly, a position she was elected to during its Dec. 11 meeting. As the elections for the spring semester get closer, she said she hopes to improve student engagement — something several SA leaders said they would like to increase from past election cycles.

SA is looking to achieve a voter turnout of 10% this spring, Williams said. The spring 2023 election had a 5.61% voter turnout, or 863 votes. Voter turnout decreased by approximately 4% compared to the spring 2022 election, which received 9.9% voter turnout.

Williams said she hopes the upcoming elections will allow students to understand how “broad” SA is.

Williams, who has been involved in SA for five semesters, was previously SA’s speaker pro tempore. This semester, she will be working alongside Richard Maj — who is filling her former role for the spring semester.

Other Business:

• Kait Paige, SA’s vice president of diversity and inclusion, also promoted several of its ongoing accessibility goals, such as facilitating accommodation requests for students and faculty and introducing a disability living learning community in fall 2024.
• SA will hold its second “SA on Tour” initiative — a program in which representatives from SA visit registered student organizations to increase engagement with the association throughout the semester.
• Chet Guenther, project coordinator for the New York Public Interest Research Group, will host its “Student Action” event, where students can participate in projects about signing petitions, placing phone calls and making postcards. The initiative will occur on Feb. 15.