Student Government urges students to vote

During the latest Student Government meeting, President Roshit Niraula highlighted the success of the Candidate Fair, an event designed to engage students in the upcoming Nov. 5 elections. The fair, hosted by the Student Government, provided students with the opportunity to meet and interact with a variety of candidates representing different parties. 

Both Niraula and Speaker Kendra Youngberg emphasized the informed voting and explained the fair was organized to ensure students had direct access to candidates, ask important questions and learn about the strategies of the candidates. 

“The reason why we did this is so students know who they could be voting for the community could have better engagement with the campus as well, and then to also make it a holistic approach, where students, faculty, community members, whoever could come and attend this event,” said Youngberg. “This is also a great way to get candidates to the school to meet part of their constituency, especially since the 18 to 25 age demographic is a really critical age for this election.”

“At the end of the day, we wanted students to make informed decisions, and that’s why we didn’t hesitate to reach out across the aisles in between liberal candidates and conservative candidates,” Niraula said. “We had independent candidates that come in, so it was really exciting to see the enthusiasm that was brought in.”

According to Niraula, the Student Government had historically hosted voting-related events, such as Get Out The Vote. This year, after some brainstorming within the Student Government body, they have decided to give a platform for different candidates to connect with students, faculty and other campus visitors.

“We ended up deciding that we wanted to do a candidates fair where we provided equal opportunities for different candidates to come in and connect and talk with students,” said Niraula. “It was a really exciting event that the team put together. Legislative Affairs was taking lead on organizing this event as a whole, and Kendra was the team lead, as I should say, for the entire event.”

Youngberg said the organization seemed easy at first, as she had the same experience hosting a candidate fair at Bemidji University. 

“It was a lot harder, because this area is a lot bigger,” Youngberg said. “But I was really grateful for having all the support from the committee, from Roshit, Rebekka and John, and basically everyone else who helped fill in the little missing pieces to the puzzle that I may have missed. So it was just an overall team effort.”

The senators and the Student Government committee coordinators helped in preparation and promotion of the event in multiple ways. According to Youngberg and Niraula, they have communicated with candidates, organized tables in the Centennial Student Union, where the event was hosted, and promoted the fair across multiple spaces on campus.

Caption: President Roshit Niraula presenting his report during the weekly Student Government meeting, where he gives an oveview of the successful turnout of the Candidate Fair event, which was hosted by the Student Government(NATHANAEL TILAHUN/The Reporter).

Write to Amal.sharafkhodjaeva@mnsu.edu