By ELIANNA NOVITCH
The University of Iowa Student Government recently passed a bill helping work toward being more accessible and inclusive of the students in the election process.
“I think it is really important for student engagement with student government that students feel like these positions are accessible,” UISG President Rachel Zuckerman said. “It is completely understandable that if students don’t think they have an opportunity to get into the organization through an elected position, they kind of just tune us out and think that the work we do isn’t relevant to their lives.”
The Independent Seat Additions bill added two seats to the student Senate that are reserved for senators running independently during student-government elections.
“It is really difficult to run [for a position] if you don’t know anyone [in UISG], especially if you want to form a ticket,” said UISG Sen. Akash Bhalerao. “Also, if you’re really interested in being in student government, there’s no way for you to know if someone is running until campaign week, and that’s too late for you to get involved.”
With the addition of two more independent seats, four senators will be elected independently.
“The independent seats give people who don’t want to be affiliated with a ticket a way to run for student government and be involved in the election process,” Bhalerao said.
The addition of independent senator seats is another reform in the organization in the past two years. Last year, UISG added the first two independent seats.
Zuckerman contended that students’ chances are better than ever when it comes to getting elected because of the four independent seats.
“We take a lot of pride in the fact that we represent the student body,” she said. “We are democratically elected, and I think a really important element to having a democratic system is that everyone has equitable opportunity to hold office. When you have a system that creates a more even playing field for all candidates, I think the best people will end up in the organization in the long run.”
Currently, UISG elections operate under a ticket system in which a party is formed and people sign on the ticket to run together.
“The current system has limited students’ ability to get involved with student government, which has had a reputation of being known as exclusive and elitist,” said UISG Justice Alisha McTaggart. “This legislation will help move UISG in the direction of being accepting and open to the student body.”
Zuckerman said while the current ticket system has wonderful benefits, it also has downsides that can be corrected while still maintaining the benefits of the ticket system.
“If students feel like they have something to bring to the organization and they want to advocate on behalf of students at Iowa, then we want them to feel like they have a chance to get involved,” Zuckerman said.
She also had advice to give all students interested in running for a UISG position.
“Run for the right reasons,” she said. “Run because you really care about the students at Iowa. Run because you have incredible ideas for how to make the student experience better and really commit yourself to engaging with students during the election process.”
Many in UISG hope the addition of these independent seats will lead to an overall reform that has been talked about for years.
“Change is a dynamic process, and if you want to make serious change, you have to start somewhere,” Bhalerao said. “[The addition of these two independent seats] is just the first step in working on a comprehensive election reform for student government.”
Zuckerman, who has also advocated for election reform throughout her years in UISG, is eager to see what will come in terms of changes to the election process.
“Hopefully, this will be the start of a broad election reform that will move us toward an even more inclusive process,” she said.