The spring SGA elections begin today and some students have concerns about the issues that the candidates may or may not address.
Two common problems that some students want addressed are financial aid and parking.
“Candidates in the past are known for addressing the issues at hand, but some students feel the issues need to be pressed,” said Kara Johnson, 20, a second-year allied health student.
Johnson, who is from Tallahassee, said she regularly sees cars being towed and yellow parking tickets on car windshields.
“I know that the president of SGA can only do so much, but the candidate I will vote for has to strongly feel that parking is an issue,” Johnson said.
Parking is a common issue, but some students feel the candidates should not focus all of their strength into an issue such as parking.
“We are all adults, we know where to park and where not to,” said Patrick Williams, 20, a junior history student from Miami. “The candidates should address the fact that we need to use common sense when it comes down to parking and getting our cars towed.”
Williams said financial aid is more of a pressing issue than parking.
“They should be concerned about why some students aren’t receiving their financial aid money until two months after it was supposed to be disbursed,” Williams said. “The candidate that makes some type of effort to get the president of FAMU to address this issue will get my vote.”
While parking and towing may be an issue, some students will never make it to the voting booth Feb. 22, because of a lack of confidence they have in the democratic process.
“This is my third year at FAMU and I have yet to vote,” said Aja Allen, 21, a business administration student from Miami. “I think issues such as financial aid and parking can’t really be addressed by SGA. If that was the case, I would’ve had my financial aid check already.”
Some students said over the years, the SGA campaigning process has not strongly addressed the issues and that is part of the reason why they’re not voting. Some say the candidates win for their popularity, not the platforms they want to implement.
Others feel that in order for the upcoming election to be a success, students should lead the candidates, instead of the candidates leading the students.
Ms. FAMU Brooke Smith said she believes voting in the upcoming election is important and that the candidates will address the issues concern students.
“For a student not to vote because they believe the issues they have won’t be addressed is an outrage,” said the 22-year-old senior agricultural business student from Fort Lauderdale.
“You can’t possibly think that SGA can know what the problem is when you’re not active in voicing your opinion. Going to open forums, writing letters to the president and SGA lets us know where we need to stand within the issues. Become the solution instead of the noise.”
Contact Ashley L. Gibson at ashleyleegibson@hotmail.com.