The unofficial results are in for Florida Atlantic University Student Government (SG)’s legislative elections, which gave students the chance to vote in leaders for the university-wide Student Senate and each campus’ House of Representatives.
In total, 577 students voted in the SG election from Sept. 24 to Sept. 25 on OwlCentral. The unofficial results reveal that this year’s university-wide voter turnout is down 11.5% from fall 2020 and 75 voters from fall 2023.
According to Benjamin Cohen, SG’s chief financial officer, the Student Senate is comprised of three students from each of the FAU campuses, totaling nine members.
The unofficial results show a total of only seven students elected to the Senate: three from the Boca Raton campus, three from Jupiter and one from Broward.
For the Boca House of Representatives, there are 50 seats available. Per a new SG elections regulation, 30 of those seats are designated for representatives of each college at FAU. The remaining 20 are available for students from any college.
The unofficial results show only 30 representatives as elected into the Boca House. The numbers for how many students representing each college are as follows:
- Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters — 10 representatives
- College of Business — 4 representatives
- Charles E. Schmidt College of Science — 4 representatives
- College of Social Work and Criminal Justice — 3 representatives
- College of Education — 1 representative
- College of Medicine — 1 graduate representative
This list excludes write-in candidates – whose colleges are not specified – and includes at-large candidates.
Eight students from the Wilkes Honor College have been elected into the Jupiter House and seven students have been elected into the Broward House.
The SG Elections Board will hold a hearing on Monday, Sept. 30 at 11 a.m. to review “potential election statute violations to ensure fairness and transparency,” according to the event description.
It is currently unknown what date the official results will be posted, but the fall 2024 election timeline notes that it will be after the Elections Board hearing, any Student Court Hearings and possible run-off election days conclude.
The Boca House will hold its first meeting on Friday, Oct. 4 at 3:30 p.m. in the House Chambers and on Microsoft Teams, according to a message from the Elections Board on the unofficial results. SG is still planning the first meetings for all other Houses and the Student Senate.
Elisabeth Gaffney is the Editor-at-Large for the University Press. For more information on this article or others, you can reach Elisabeth at [email protected] or DM her on Instagram @elisabethgaff.
