With the help of 1,344 of the 2,075 students who voted in this year’s Temple Student Government election, the Temple United ticket defeated Diamond Nation to take office for the 2013-14 academic year.
But the turnout that appointed TSG Student Body President-elect Darin Bartholomew, Vice President of Services-elect Cree Moore and Vice President of External Affairs-elect Sonia Galiber was a decrease of nearly 600 from last year’s 2,647 votes, a 22 percent drop.
Current Student Body President David Lopez said it best when he expressed his surprise about the fourth consecutive year of voter turnout decreases and said, “I would have liked to see more students vote in the election.”
It’s disappointing to see that a university with an undergraduate population of 27,725 as of Fall 2012, only 7 percent decided to participate in an election that would choose the students who will serve as the collective voice of the student body in important university decisions for an entire year.
TSG serves as the most formal representation of student interests on Main Campus, working for the benefit of the Temple community. For them to do so without receiving the endorsement of a more significant portion of the student body is to let down the democratic system.
For more coverage on the TSG election and voter turnout, read Laura Detter’s article here.
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