Besides running unopposed for Student Government Association positions, Michelle Clarke, communications junior, and Scott Daugherty, biology/pre-med junior, have a common goal: to make the SGA more approachable to students.

“Sometimes students don’t know or are confused about what we do,” Daugherty said. “They think that we just allocate funds and sell microfridges.”

Starting next year, Clarke and Daugherty will implement their shared goal as the duo assumes control of SGA. Clarke will take over as president from communications senior Martina Mills, and Daugherty will fill Clarke’s current position as vice president.

“Being the vice president this year will help me as president next year because the transition will be easier, and I already have the relationships with students and faculty,” Clarke said.

As president, Clarke plans to increase the availability of classes concerning diversity and Jesuit identity issues. Her administration as president will also focus on integrating the Center for Intercultural Understanding into the Loyola community and ensuring student representation on all university-related committees.

“Ultimately, I plan to represent the students,” Clarke said. “We don’t have a lot planned yet because we want to hear what the student body wants done.”

For Daugherty, becoming vice president is the next natural step because both positions he’s held with SGA, first as an Arts and Sciences representative and second as the Congressperson at Large, are headed by the vice president.

Daugherty also has three major innovations on his agenda for the upcoming year.

First, he intends to hold town hall meetings, where he and Clarke will have a chance to meet students in either a question-and-answer or forum format.

Second, Daugherty plans to look into Loyola classroom improvements, such as replacing broken desks, which he says are “just not conducive to learning.”

Finally, he will implement a new policy requiring SGA representatives to meet with their constituent organizations.

“One way we can make the SGA more approachable is by having working relationships between the representatives and their constituents,” Daugherty said.

According to Chris Cameron, director of the Danna Center and student activities, this year’s voter turnout has been the lowest in five years with only 18.3 percent of the student body voting. He also noted that despite Loyola’s low numbers, its voter turnout was still well above the national average of 10 to 12 percent.

Cameron, who is also the direct adviser of SGA, pointed to three reasons for the low number of candidates.

He said the first reason was that SGA did not meet some people’s expectations.

“It was a challenging year in Congress, and people thought they just had to go to a meeting at 5 o’clock once a week, but there’s more to it than that,” Cameron said.

Cameron also pointed to the trend of members wishing to switch branches within SGA. According to Cameron, the end result was several open positions in one branch of SGA and almost no positions in the others.

“There were only three races this year: the Business School president, the Business School representatives and the Arts and Sciences representatives,” Cameron explained. “Everything else was unopposed.”

Finally, Cameron acknowledged that some students only ran for positions they knew they could win, instead of the positions they were best suited for.

“It’s politics,” Cameron said. “Students are afraid that if they lose the race, they won’t be given a position by their opponent. So, instead, they run for a position they know they can win so they can be involved.”

While Daugherty acknowledged his excitement at becoming vice president, he also admitted his disappointment for not having anyone to run against.

“I was ready to run [campaign] when I signed up,” Daugherty said. “There was no way of knowing that I’d run unopposed.”

Daugherty also voiced his concern that students would question the validity of his position on SGA and outlined his plan to assure students of his worth.

“I’m still going to campaign,” he said. “I want people to know what we’re going to do next year, and that we’re productive.”

In addition to Clarke and Daugherty, Quinn Dennehy, sociology sophomore, was elected president of the College of Arts and Sciences and Melanie Rahman, music composition junior, was elected President of the College of Music. Both Dennehy and Rahman also ran unopposed.

The election was not without any contests, however, as both the Arts and Sciences representative race and the College of Business Administration presidential race held run-off elections.

In the Arts and Sciences race, Julia Francis, history freshman, and Chaseray Griffin, communications freshman competed for the final representative spot. In the CBA race, Conrad DeBaillon, marketing junior faced Justin Weber, management junior. Results were not available as of press time.

Cameron said he wouldn’t call this year’s election a trend but more of a fluke.

“Now if this happens again next year, then I’d say that we have a trend and that we need to do something about it,” Cameron said.

Sarah Castagnetta can be reached at [email protected].