Staff Editorial: SGA a good way to get involved

This past week, the University of Mary Washington held its annual Student Government Association (SGA) elections for various leadership positions, and the voter participation only reached around 17 percent, according to the Student Government.

Less than a quarter of the student population chooses to exercise its option to vote, yet the UMW community is notorious for complaining about their university. Students are more interested in taking Buzzfeed quizzes on which sandwich best represents you, instead of deciding which students best represent you.

We can all admit that there is probably something that we dislike about the university; we would not be millennials if we did not want to change something.

Even given that, over Facebook, many UMW students posted on UMW Confessions 2.0 about their dislike and hatred for the university and community, yet the student government elections results are never very high in voting participation.

There are several complaints that events never happen at the university, yet the weekly publication of this paper proves otherwise. We extensively cover the Fredericksburg and UMW communities’ news, along with the events that are occurring or are going to occur.

If students have concerns about the university, voice their opinion via Facebook, but there are more productive ways, such as running for student government, writing a letter to the editor to us here at the Bullet, or speaking to the administration.

Even voting in the elections would be a step in the right direction. Many students come to UMW because it is their first choice, while others undeniably come because they did not get into their first choice. Regardless of one’s reason for coming to UMW, it is up to all of us to make these four years worth it.

We would like to congratulate all of the new SGA elected members, including new SGA President Samantha Worman, SGA Vice President Nate Levine, Honor Council President Catherine Purtell, Judicial Review Board (JRB)  President Kristy Ju, Association of Residence Halls President Mia Boleis, ICA President Matt McAloon, LAC Chair Joe Dolan and JRB Vice President Maddie Carinci.

We are looking forward to working with all of you to continue making UMW a home away from home for every person that spends time here. We hope that you all will have the same commitment of past SGA administrations, moving to make us great. After all, this is the place that great minds get to work.