The Student Government Association is aiming to begin its spring 2025 election cycle soon after spring break, SGA Elections Chair Ethan Davis ’25 told The Herald. All non-appointed seats within the three branches of SGA — the Undergraduate Council of Students, the Undergraduate Finance Board and the four Class Coordinating Boards — will be up for election.
This timeline marks a near one month delay compared to the 2023 and 2024 election cycles, which both began with information sessions for prospective candidates in early March. According to Davis, this year’s information sessions will be held the week after spring break and the timeline and details of the rest of the election cycle have yet to be finalized.
Past years’ election cycles began earlier in the semester in order to onboard newly elected student officers, a process that “becomes horrible if it’s later in the semester,” according to Eli Sporn ’24, former elections chair of the SGA.
But Davis said SGA decided to delay this year’s election cycle upon realizing that “there was enough room to hold the election later and still have enough time to” onboard new officers, Davis told The Herald.
Sporn added that elections were also held earlier in past years because “we wanted it to be early enough that people aren’t locked in midterms or finals,” he wrote in a message to The Herald.
But this year, SGA hopes that delaying the elections until early April will increase voter turnout, as many students finish their midterms before spring break, Davis said. Voter turnout for SGA spring elections has declined over the last three years, from 35% in 2022 to just 21% in 2024.
The campaigning process begins once SGA hosts the information sessions, which are mandatory for all prospective candidates. In past years, those running were required to submit a candidate statement, collect 50 signatures to be eligible for candidacy and gain approval for any campaigning materials.
The process will likely be the same this year, according to Davis, who added that the election cycle will not coincide with final exams, based on SGA’s tentative timeline.
Sabrina Liu ’28, current UCS health and wellness chair, wrote she is “confident” that the plans for this year’s elections will “buttress our progress for traction and uptake in the student body.”
