You would expect an election about decisions that shape student life hanging in the balance would generate a lively turnout – but with only 4% of eligible students casting their vote, what’s keeping students away?
Just 717 students turned out to vote in the latest round of Student Council Elections, with many students unclear on the role of the representative body whose role is to “represent students from across the University”, as well as serving as the main form of accountability for the elected student officers
School convenors, who represent students from individual schools also serve as student representatives on University Senate, are a key representative role in the University. Despite this, the School of Biological Sciences election saw just 20 votes cast, with the election for the Medicine convenor seeing the largest turnout with only 92 votes cast.
As the University navigates a challenging financial climate, the council’s role in protecting student interests – from funding and resources to campus life – has never been more important
Interestingly, awareness of the elections doesn’t seem to be the problem. In a poll conducted by The Gaudie, over half of respondents (51%) intended to vote. It seems the issue runs deeper, with more than 58% telling us that they’re unclear what the council actually does.
When asked if they were aware of the council’s work, Libby, a 2nd year Psychology and Sociology student seemed unsure:
“I kind of know what the Student Council does but I only ever hear about that kind of stuff when someone approaches me in person to ask me to vote or something, I never hear about it on social media, or in any lectures of classes, and I feel the same way about the elections.”
Speaking after her election – winning 212 of the 395 votes cast – the newly elected chair of council Kaitlin Agius has already started planning to improve the profile of the council:
“The Vice Chair and I are keen to get the wider student community more involved with council and we’ve been brainstorming different ways to do so.
Previously, there had been a student council digest sent out to students after council had been held to keep everyone up to date with what the council was doing and how to get involved and we are hoping to bring this back.”
Ms Agius, who has previously served two terms on the council recognised that there is a long way to go:
“While this is only a first step, my first two roles on council were very student facing and I’d like to continue talking to students and getting them as involved with council as I can.”
With 35% of students telling us that the SU is either ‘a little’ or ‘not at all’ relevant to their university experience, it seems there is a great deal of work required to improve the SU’s outreach. Fortunately, the wait may not be long, with a review of the union’s democratic structures announced at the first council meeting of the year.
But one thing is for sure: the previous chair’s dad jokes are here to stay. Kaitlin has promised to keep the tradition alive, saying she’s already hunting for the perfect joke to kick off her term. Could a laugh (or a groan) be the first step toward a more engaged student body?
With a long-awaited democracy review finally on the cards, could this be the last election for student council as we know it?
