Most voters in this year’s Undergraduate Student Government elections were on-campus students, females or members of Greek organizations, according to a BG News/USG survey distributed at voting tables during elections earlier this month.

Off-campus students showed little interest in USG elections compared to their on-campus counterparts. Though off-campus students account for 55.6 percent of undergraduates at the University, they only cast 19.2 percent of the vote. Most off-campus students are juniors and seniors, who together accounted for 32 percent of voters.

To live on campus is to have greater access to voting tables, according to Josh Kontak, USG’s newly elected president. “There were voting tables in dining halls,” Kontak said. “Off-campus students are more likely to eat at home.” It might be possible to correct this imbalance by letting students cast votes via the Internet, which USG has already considered, Kontak said.

“Online voting would increase off-campus turnout,” he said. Seniors — the only group who won’t be represented by the new student government — showed the lowest turnout at 12.5 percent. They account for 24.7 percent of undergraduates.

Nineteen percent of juniors voted, which proportionally equals the class’ size. Though USG’s new members represent this year’s juniors, underclassmen turned in the votes that seniors didn’t. Together, freshmen and sophomores accounted for 69.9 percent of voters.

Of the 1,582 voters who elected USG’s 2003-04 senate, 765, or 48 percent, filled out surveys asking their sex, college, race, campus involvement and more.

Those belonging to social fraternities and sororities were also more likely to vote. Though they makeup only 13 percent of undergraduates, they accounted for 34.5 percent of voters. Greek organizations can be awarded points for voting, which could have increased their turnout, Kontak said. Heavy campaigning to fraternities and sororities may have also helped, he added. Females also voted more than males. Though women account for 56 percent of students, they made up 60.9 percent of voters.

Blacks also outpaced whites, proportionally. Five percent of University students are black — they represented 11 percent of voters.

Though some groups voted more than others, turnout has more than doubled since last year. Kontak and running mate Sara Kaminski swayed 837 voters, beating last year’s total vote count by 99 votes.

Getting votes means campaigning, but most students surveyed said they learned of USG elections through a friend. But word of mouth starts with campaigning, according to Kontak. “It was sparked by [candidates] speaking with so many organizations,” he said.

Campaigning — which includes chalking sidewalks, posting fliers and making appearances in front of groups — grabbed the attention of half those surveyed. The BG News helped alert 25 percent as well.

Financial problems do not frighten Kontak, Kaminski

By Joel Hammond

Managing Editor

The easy part is over for Josh Kontak and Sara Kaminski.

The pair was named the winners of the battle to become the new president and vice president of Undergraduate Student Government last Monday night.

Now comes the hard part — finding a way to improve and govern the campus during a time of financial uncertainty in higher education.

Kontak, a rising senior history major from Waterville, and Kaminski, a rising junior from Austintown, Ohio, were sworn in Monday night as the new heads of the organization, replacing Sarah Saccany and Kevin Yania for the 2003-2004 school year. The two have a wealth of knowledge of areas on campus, with Kontak having served a resident advisor, president of Collegiate Chorale, a cabinet member in USG and as an Orientation Leader this past summer, while Kaminski has been actively involved with the Political Science department and in USG. Kontak believes this combination will help he and Kaminski better serve the students. “We have served in a lot of capacities on campus, and I think we know the ins and outs of campus, as well as the administrative channels we will need to be effective,” he said.

The tandem’s main goal is to create more direct liaisons with more influential groups on campus, such as Vision, the Black Student Union, the Latino Student Union and others.

“If we establish more direct liaisons with those organizations, we will help them with their awareness on campus,” Kaminski said. “Those organizations are so big and influential. … Chances are, you know some in those organizations, and our becoming more involved with them will help their awareness, and help us become aware of problems they see on campus.”

Both Kontak and Kaminski were involved in Saccany’s mission this past year of taking students’ opposition to state-mandated financial cuts in higher education. Saccany and company organized letter-writing campaigns and took groups of students to Columbus to voice their views at the Capitol.

Both say, though, that unless voting increases in students’ age brackets, legislators will continue to ignore their protests.

“That’s a huge goal of ours, to get as many students registered to vote and voting as we possibly can,” Kontak said. “If we want our legislators to take notice, then we have to get out and vote and show them that we matter.”

“We are the brunt of the cuts, and since we don’t vote, representatives feel they don’t have to be responsive to us,” Kaminski said. ” Sometimes it’s hard to get students to register to vote here, because often a lot of them are out of state, and are hesitant to register here. If we can get students to vote, we can prove that we need to be taken seriously.”

Kontak said he, his partner and others in USG are in the early stages of planning a rally in September in support of higher education.

Both also said that they had seen marked improvement in the enthusiasm within the organization this year, which is key to the group as a whole representing the undergraduate student body as a whole.

“We have a really enthusiastic and excited group of new senators,” Kaminski said. “The key for them is to keep getting out and talking to their constituencies, so that we can have as many people represented as possible, which is something they have done well this year.”

Kontak also said the senators that he has had experience with do in fact get out to students and do their jobs, which is the key to the organization doing its job.

Other issues the group will focus on under the Kontak/Kaminski administration are dining services, where Kontak is hoping to somehow get a meal plan that is of lesser value than the plan currently offered, and campus safety, in which the two will deal with the lighting on campus as well as paving and snow removal, among other things.