Elections for Florida Atlantic University’s Student Government (SG) legislation are now in full swing, but this year looks a little different for the Boca House of Representatives.
From Tuesday, Sept. 24 to Wednesday, Sept. 25, FAU students have the chance to vote on Owl Central for SG leaders of the Student Senate and the House of Representatives across all three FAU campuses.
In the past, any 50 undergraduate or graduate students on FAU’s Boca campus could be elected to the Boca House of Representatives. SG is now designating 30 of these seats for students representing each of the 10 colleges within the university. The remaining 20 seats remain available for representatives from any college, according to Benjamin Cohen, SG’s chief financial officer.
The 30 college-representative seats are divided based on each college’s enrollment, so those with a higher student population have more seats than those with lower populations, Cohen says.
“Having college representatives in the most active of our legislative branches gives a direct connection from the students to their colleges to voice their concerns. It will further empower our college representatives to do what they were elected to do: represent the student body,” Cohen wrote in an email to the University Press. “In my opinion, it’s the most significant structural change that Student Government has made in over 15 years.”
The long-term goal of this change, according to Cohen, is that introducing student college representatives will increase overall student involvement in SG. He notes that last year, the most active number of students in the Boca House was 25, and only an average of about 15-20 students remained active by mid-year.
SG’s official fall 2024 candidate list shows there are 27 total students running for a seat in the Boca House. This number does not include write-in candidates, which Cohen says SG will not receive until later in the election.
Throughout the year, students can apply to fill any seat vacancies through the in-house election process.
Currently, there are three candidates for the Jupiter House and 11 candidates for the Broward House. The Jupiter and Broward Houses only have seven available seats, based on the lower population of the campuses.
The Student Senate consists of three students from each of the Boca Raton, Jupiter and Broward campuses. A total of 12 students are up for positions: five from Boca, five from Jupiter and two from Broward.
All FAU students running for legislative SG positions are listed here or on Owl Central. Voting will close at 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 25. According to Cohen, SG leaders will receive the unofficial results by noon on Thursday, Sept. 26.
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.
