As this SGA election season will be my last at The University of Alabama, I cannot help but to think back on all of the other elections that have taken place during my time here. My tendency to be so reflective may be the recognizable habit of a senior who is already beginning to feel nostalgic, but revisiting these past elections has gotten some gears turning in my head about how we define what is politically possible on our campus. It has also made me think about how much has changed over the course of my stay here.
The most recent two elections loom large in my memory, and they each felt like momentous occasions in the unfolding student history of our campus. Last year, there was intense competition between current SGA President Lillian Roth and two exceptional independent candidates (Caroline Morrison and Patrick Fitzgerald). The year before, there was at first the daring hope and then the triumphant victory of Elliot Spillers, who became the first non-Machine SGA president since 1986 and only the second Black SGA President since Cleo Thomas won the seat in 1976. It felt incredible. Both years, there was a palpable sense of possibility and empowerment. In both election cycles, it felt—for the first time in a long time—that our SGA might become a forum for truly serving the needs of our entire student body and for making thoughtful, substantive changes on our campus.
Then, I think of the SGA election during my freshman year. At that point in time, in the pre-Spillers days, many exhausted generations of students had tried and failed to place independent candidates into SGA. I remember distinctly having conversations with my friends who were seniors at the time, and nearly all of them discouraged me from giving too much thought to the election. As they sat and reflected on the elections that had taken place during their time here at the Capstone, all they were able to see was a pattern of futility. They advised me, in good faith, that I should not get involved in SGA because it was not a place where I would have a voice. They advised me to vote in the election, but not to expect that it would matter because of the seemingly hegemonic power of the shadowy Machine. They advised me that SGA would forever remain a vapid sandbox where campus’ most privileged and exclusive students play political theatre; they told me that SGA is where uninspired puppets warm seats, play pretend at leadership and accomplish nothing except for awarding themselves block seating at next season’s football games.
Listening to this narrative from the seniors that I looked up to, I felt politically powerless during my freshman year. Having seen SGA do nothing of importance, I mistakenly assumed that it could do nothing of importance. Having heard that the Machine wins elections before they even begin, I mistakenly assumed that my vote couldn’t make much of a difference either way.
No freshman should feel that way anymore.
I have suddenly become the senior that I once looked up to, and as I reflect on the past four years, I see no reason to believe that our campus is one of foreclosed political possibilities. In just four years, the well-reasoned cynicism of the past has been replaced with a sense (and a history) of possibility.
So to the freshmen of today, I say this: you could run this campus. In fact, I think that you should run this campus. When it comes down to it, y’all are the ones who have the greatest stake in the future of what takes place here. You have more time left on this campus than any of the rest of us, and as a result, you have the greatest claim to the composition and direction of SGA. If you are ever feeling powerless about this election, I want you to remember two numbers: 7,408, and 7,559. The first is the total number of votes that it took our current SGA president to win the last election. The second is the total number of freshmen currently on this campus.
The reality is that The Machine gets its power from voter apathy. It is neither insurmountable nor predestined. If freshmen decided to vote, then freshmen would run this campus. The widespread civic participation of freshmen alone would be enough to decide this (or any) election. As a senior, there is nothing that would make me happier than that. This is your campus. From 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. today, vote to claim it.
Dana Sweeney is a senior majoring in English literature. His column runs biweekly.
