Temple Student Government began accepting applications for Parliament seats last Monday, but a week after the official announcement, several students had not heard about it.
Parliament has 37 seats, and although some can only be voted on if the student is part of a specific group, several seats can be voted on by any Temple student.
Applications for Parliament seats close on Oct. 28, and the candidates will be announced on Nov. 7 before a two-day online voting period on Nov. 15 and 16.
Jordana DiPaolo, a senior advertising major, said she had never heard about applications or the voting process for Parliament.
“I don’t know if it was in an email,” DiPaolo said. “I would have [seen] it.”
DiPaolo added she hadn’t seen any flyers about Parliament, nor has anyone made an announcement about the group in one of her classes, which is how she said she hears a lot of information.
“I’m an advertising major and you definitely need to promote [events],” she said.
“You’ll be seeing a lot of stuff on our social media platforms,” said Kristina Del Mar, TSG’s promotions manager. “We’ll be having different events throughout campus just to remind people to get out and vote.”
One of the events will include a meet-and-greet with the candidates for students.
“[TSG will] have all of the different candidates running speak so the people that are voting can have a better understanding of what the candidates stand for,” Del Mar said.
Since Oct. 11, TSG has tweeted advertisements about Parliament membership and has also encouraged applying in its Twitter bio.
Other than announcing details about Parliament at the general attendance meetings, Twitter is the main form of promotion the student government has used to inform students about running for a seat.
Other students said they hadn’t seen much publicity for Parliament.
“I’ve never heard of [Parliament] before,” said Dave Brook, a junior accounting major. “I bet if I asked a bunch of people, they wouldn’t know either.”
Brook said that he is not “up-to-date” with TSG.
He said that there was a possibility he might have known about Parliament if he was “notified with a campus-wide [email]” on the subject.
“Maybe [TSG] only advertises it at certain events,” said Audrey Kim, a freshman undeclared business major.
Kim said she did not know about Parliament and has not seen any promotions for it. She said she believes that TSG could have been targeting a specific audience.
“I don’t think I would have found out,” said Danielle Boni, a freshman advertising major. “Maybe [TSG] should put posters around because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a poster for that.”
She added that sending an email out would be a great way to know about Parliament.
“A lot of people check their emails every day. I go through [all of my emails] and click on them,” she said.
“I heard about Parliament for the election,” said Sam McMinn, a sophomore community development and philosophy major. “I haven’t heard any progress.”
Despite not knowing about Parliament, some students said they would still consider voting.
“I think I would [vote for Parliament],” DiPaolo said.
She compared voting for Parliament with voting for Homecoming. Someone in one of her classes announced that they were running for Homecoming court. DiPaolo “never thought [she] would have voted” if not for the promotion.
“I would vote because it matters,” Boni said. She said that Parliament would represent students with different interests and let their voice be heard.
McMinn also said he might “give it a look.”
“[Parliament] seems like a good idea, we’ll see where it goes,” McMinn said. “Who knows, it might be a horrible idea.”
Francesca Furey can be reached at francesca.furey@temple.edu.
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