Students will have the opportunity to decide who represents their college in the upcoming Consolidated Students of UNLV (CSUN) senate election on Oct. 13 and 14
“It’s important that each student gets involved in this election so that they feel like their voice is heard in some aspect because these are the student representatives who are going to represent them in the senate,” Rey Ruiz, CSUN assistant director of elections, said. “Whether that be for RSO (Registered Student Organization) funding, scholarships and grants, things like that.”
There are 25 total seats in the senate. Each college on campus gets a different amount of seats allocated to them based on their student population. For example, the Lee Business School has a total of three seats in the senate. The most populated college on campus is the College of Liberal Arts, whose population headcount of 3793 for the fall 2021 semester, according to UNLV’s Office of Decision Support, nets them a total of six seats on the CSUN senate.
According to preliminary data from Ruiz, for those six seats there are currently 12 declared candidates for the College of Liberal Arts. This ratio of two candidates competing per seat would normally make the College of Liberal Arts especially competitive among UNLV’s colleges. However, for this election this level of competition is more standard than previous years.
This semester’s election sees nearly every college on UNLV’s campus have the same number of candidates per seat as the College of Liberal Arts, which Ruiz noted is usually the most competitive of the bunch. One notable exception for this election is the Lee Business School, whose total of eight candidates for their three seats puts them much closer to three candidates running per seat. This also makes Lee Business School the most competitive UNLV college for the senate election.
“It means that there’s more options for students on how they feel like they can represent their voice best,” said Ruiz. “It also means that you’ll see candidates campaigning quite a bit more.”
These campaigns can be seen both physically on campus and online. However, every bit of campaign material from candidates must be approved by the CSUN before it is presented to the student body to avoid slander.
Ruiz and his colleagues at the CSUN are currently putting together a voter’s guide to present the relevant information on each candidate to the student voter population. This guide will consist of what Ruiz calls a “filing packet” from each candidate. These filing packets are submitted by each candidate to the CSUN and consist of their biography, their reason for running for senate and a description of who they are as a person. When completed, this guide will be able to be found on CSUN website, under either announcements or election resources.
On the election days students will have the opportunity to vote either in person or online. Online voting will open on Oct. 13 at 9 a.m. and close Oct.14 at 5 p.m. A voting booth will be set up in the Student Union from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both voting days.
