For the first time since 2020, Student Government Productions opened up its concerts to the general public.
On the lawn of the Reitz Union Tuesday morning, the candidates made their debut in front of silver balloons that read ‘FORWARD’ in front of an audience of about 30 students.
Two Student Government parties announced their candidates for executive positions three weeks before elections start. Feb. 22 and 23, UF students can cast their votes for a new Student Body president, Vice President and Treasurer. Students will also choose 50 new senators to take over seats organized by college and credit hours.
Concluding statements were cut short when Siddharth Krishnan, a member of the UF Communist Party, announced from the back of the room that a COVID-19-positive student was on the way to the debate.
The concert, which is for UF students only, will be held at the O’Connell Center at 7 p.m. and was announced through social media posts along with an update to the student government website. Doors to the event will open at 6 p.m.
After a Fall semester that saw graduate seat vacancies and an unusually low number of bills on the Senate floor, SG officers are preparing for the Spring semester.
Following the Fall 2021 elections, both the Graduate and Family Housing seats remained vacant. Seven total votes were cast for only write-in candidates.
Last Spring, SG passed 19 bills — at least 11 of which were resolutions. This semester, SG passed less than half of that. Seven bills were approved in the Senate chamber since September: three were resolutions.
Senate unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday advocating for pedestrian safety at the intersection of University Avenue and Northwest 26th Street.
The annual address allows SG’s executive branch to list their accomplishments of the semester and what is to come. Tuesday’s address was the first in-person address since 2019, as SG held the most recent address online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since September, canvassers who claim to support Seminole Native American tribes have been spotted around campus collecting signatures for a cause many students know nothing about.
Built in April of 2009, the UF Veterans Memorial originally consisted of flags, a fountain and five granite pillars for each branch of the military. Now, the pond’s murky green water collects algae and has fallen into disrepair.
Gator Party has held a majority in Senate for more than a year since Spring 2020 when it won its first executive ticket. Now, with about 70 Gator senators in the chamber, the composition of Senate committees echoes this majority.
Although open to the public, standing Student Government committee meetings are often only announced on a clipboard on the ground floor of the Reitz Union. Students who do not pass the area and are not members of the committees themselves have no other means to find out SG meeting dates and times.
Some senators were dissatisfied with the picks for 21 committee seats and five open permanent Senate seats.
Senate elected its former Rules and Ethics Chair Annabelle Groux (Gator, District A) and former Judiciary Chair Noah Fineberg (Gator, District A) to serve as senate president and senate pro-tempore respectively.
Change Party won 12 seats in the Fall election, whittling down Gator Party's supermajority.
A total of 8,299 votes were cast, an increase of 35% from last Fall’s 6,130 ballots. Results were announced in person for the first time since COVID-19 hit in Fall 2019.
UF Students have seven options of polling locations to cast their votes to decide who will fill the 50 available Student Government Senate seats. Voting will take place Sept. 28 and 29 from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Without a party to back them up, independent candidates are responsible for building their own platforms and campaigns.
Solutions by The State News
