Does apathy towards SGA reflect broader voter disengagement?
Reporting about the SGA, not a record of it: The Johns Hopkins News-Letter published this and the SGA did not write it, file it, or approve it. The archive holds it because the article itself uses the phrases “sga” and “student government”.
Summary
- This Johns Hopkins News-Letter article examines low SGA election turnout and student engagement.
- The News-Letter reported that, after one student ran for Senior Class Council in spring 2018, the CSE held a special fall election for five seats without its usual petition process.
- The paper reported that senior turnout was 14.3 percent, down from 30.2 percent in the previous general election.
- The article says SGA members interviewed by the paper linked the decline to weaker publicity and the short time between elections.
- The reporter writes that SGA has supported student engagement through TurboVote, a campus walk-out, buses to March For Our Lives and a Student Activism Fair.
- The article argues that students and SGA both have responsibilities to improve participation and that the fall referendum could support discussion of campus issues, although the paper says it has questions about how the referendum will work.