After capturing little interest in the initial round of applications for executive positions, Student Senate was able to solicit applications for Student Body President and other vacancies. After the first election deadline, numerous positions, such as the President, Chief of Staff, Director of Financial Strategy and Director of PR and Marketing, remained vacant. In response, the Senate extended the deadline to submit election packets by two weeks from Feb. 13 to Feb. 28.

Nora Stocovaz ‘25, Senate Chief of Staff, spoke with The Dickinsonian about the measures Student Senate took to increase interest in these vacant positions. “We realized we needed to do a push of information,” Stocovaz said. Their main focus within the two-week extension was advertising. The Senate utilized posters around the school, sent out numerous emails to the student body and student clubs, and posted frequently on social media.

The executive board met with President Jones to set up plans to get the word out on elections. The college Instagram account released a post encouraging students to apply for these vacant positions. “It was helpful to get the word out on a bigger scale,” Stocovaz said.

Stocovaz also highlighted other Student Senate efforts, such as their open table in the HUB and Britton Plaza, where students could easily learn about these positions and Student Senate. Members of the Student Senate also encouraged individual students to apply. “We directly talked to people that we thought would serve really well and encouraged them to apply,” Stocovaz said. 

These advertising efforts doubled the number of applicants for executive positions. Every vacant position aside from the Director of Academics was filled, as one candidate, Katarina Swendrowski ’24, decided to withdraw her application for Director of Academics to run for President. Once the elections are over, the newly elected executive board will accept applications for Director of Academics. 

Stocovaz believes they will easily be able to fill this position. “People are more inclined to do an application-based position than an election-based election because it is a lot less scary,” Stocovaz said. However, she also emphasized the importance of representatives being elected by the student body whenever possible.

In past elections, some students have experienced harassment on the app YikYak. “[The Senate] has absolutely no control over that sort of thing,” Stocovaz said. “I hate to say it’s part of elections but it is something that comes with the territory of putting yourself out for a position like that…it’s horrible…I wish there is more that we could do,” Stocovaz said. The Senate also condemns campaigning negatively against opponents of any candidates running for election. “There’s just no point to it,” Stocovaz said.

Many executive positions have only one candidate. Stocovaz highlighted the ambiguity of the current constitution, which leaves out important details on how to run single-candidate elections. “There is not a specific delineation of how the voting must occur in our constitution,” Stocovaz said.

To ensure an election takes place in which students’ voices are heard, the Senate is including an abstain option. If this option proves to be successful during this election, the Senate may consider a constitutional amendment to enshrine this method within the Senate constitution.

Regarding future elections, the Student Senate believes these issues were a valuable learning opportunity. “We have definitely learned a lot from these elections,” Stocovaz said. The Student Senate would like to make themselves as visible as possible and get lots of accessible information to students. “We will see an uptick in candidates when the Senate becomes more visible and tangible to people,” Stocavaz said.

Katrina Faulkner ‘23 also spoke with The Dickinsonian about the importance of student involvement. Faulkner emphasized the importance of advertising the role of Senate positions. “[Students] don’t know how important all-college-committees are,” Faulkner said. “That’s how students have any say in anything,” Stocovaz added.

Faulkner and Stocovaz highlighted the direct line of communication between the Senate and Senior Administration. “I sit on Zoom with people that do the change,” Stocovaz said. “Students have a vote [in all college committees] that is similar to administration and faculty and that’s really important,” Faulkner said.