SGA hoping to get students ready to vote

As the country inches closer to the 2020 presidential election, the ETSU Student Government Association, in partnership with ETSU Votes, is hoping to inspire students to do their civic duty.

During the SGA’s meeting on Tuesday, ETSU Votes graduate assistant and former president of the ETSU College Democrats, Seth Manning, spoke to the university’s senators about the importance of voting – and how important this week’s Constitution Week events are to ETSU. 

“I think in the United States today – college students – we don’t push learning the constitution, learning civics as much as I think we should,” Manning said. “But, when we talk to students, we find that they’re incredibly interested in the topic. They just don’t know the resources and where to find it.” 

Manning, who graduated from ETSU with a political science degree in May, said they “wanted to bring” these initiatives to the student population, and show them the resources available to them. Manning hopes making the SGA aware of some of the initiatives will help spread the word a bit more. 

“The SGA are the student leaders – they’re the voices of the students,” he said. “We want them to help us communicate to the student body across the board. When we have such effective leaders, we want to make sure we’re getting them involved as well.”

SGA President Aamir Shaikh agrees, saying these types of initiatives are at the core of SGA’s mission as student representatives. 

“I think it goes along with our mission to push students to be active,” Shaikh said. “It’s directly in line with our values.” 

On Tuesday, ETSU Votes will be holding a voter registration drive at three locations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to celebrate national voter registration day. For more information, contact etsuvotes@etsu.edu or call (423) 439-6633.

Also during the meeting, the SGA approved $2,263 from the BUC Fund – a student activity fund controlled by the SGA – for a second iteration of the campus services fair. Last year’s event saw more than 20 campus organizations show up to provide information and free swag to students, and this funding is expected to help grow the event to a larger scale on The Quad. About $30 of every students tuition is paid into the BUC Fund.