North Texas Daily

The reason we are running unopposed is because of students’ apathy in regards to anything concerning student government. We have been pushing to make this an election with the largest voter turnout yet – with a hopeful turnout of 15 percent of the student body (roughly 5,200 students). The biggest issue I found while tabling was that it was nearly impossible to get students to stop as soon as the word “election” was uttered. It’s very difficult to turn the tables when students are reluctant to get off of them.

As the director of marketing for the Student Government Association, it was my job to market the upcoming elections and the opening of SGA applications. We created multiple posters and yard signs, sent out mass emails, constantly posted about it on our social media and even created a banner that sat in the entryway of Willis Library for a week. We have exhausted every possible outlet to reach out to the student body.

Upon finding out we were running unopposed, Christopher and I met with the SGA faculty advisor and began brainstorming some possible solutions in order to make the election as democratic as possible. We even contemplated re-opening applications for any presidential/vice presidential candidates. The issue with that solution was that in order to re-open those applications, we would have to re-open senator applications as well. The election board would also have to re-create the election calendar and re-propose it to senate for approval the following Wednesday. It would ultimately push elections too far back. We resorted to having a “write in” option on the presidential ballot that would allow students to write in any candidates they would like to endorse. Ultimately making it Alattry/Lee versus the entire student body who meet the candidacy GPA and eligibility requirements.

The debate was turned into a Q&A session because there were no other candidates to debate. In the editorial, the NT Daily mentioned that the other candidates “didn’t bother to show up.” This is false. The other candidates dropped their campaign very early on due to personal reasons. It only made sense to turn the debate into a Q&A. We apologize we were not able to entertain the Daily’s requests for a debate.

We are also very sorry we are unable to be major players during Freedom Summer of 1964 and ‘protest real issues,’ like Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney did. However, we plan on restituting for it by being there for the students, should we get elected.

Finally, I would like to point out to everyone that we are not running unopposed. Anyone can announce their candidacy at any time and start collecting votes by encouraging students to write their name in. The Student Government Association has done everything in its power to make this election democratic. Now, we wait for students to take on the opportunity and run for presidency.

Adam Alattry is the SGA director of marketing and presidential candidate. This letter was written with the support of vice presidential candidate Christopher Lee

Featured Image: SGA presidential candidate Allatry