The FUSA elections are underway! Last Thursday, Feb. 22, the Fairfield University Student Association (FUSA) held its annual presidential debate in the lower level of the Barone Campus Center.
This is a great opportunity for candidates to respond to questions, allowing voters a chance to understand the priorities of the individuals seeking the position. In last year’s debate, there were two candidates who fielded questions, whereas this year only one student is running: Giovanni Young-Annunziato ‘25, who also ran last year. This lack of involvement and interest in running raises the question about the amount of engagement with FUSA events and leadership positions as a whole as well as what can be done to increase their reach across the Fairfield University community.
FUSA could start by improving its communication methods. The emails sent to students by FUSA lack appealing visual elements, making it easy for students to overlook them in their inboxes. Along with this, back in January, the email to enroll for the FUSA Presidential Election was sent only a day before the declaration period started. If a student who was interested in the position saw this email without knowing the opportunity existed before, this most likely would not provide them ample time to start developing their campaign strategy.
In addition to the association needing to do a better job at promoting its events and leadership opportunities, the FUSA website blog hasn’t been updated in almost four years, with its last article being released on March 30, 2021. On the other hand, their Instagram account is active with over 2,000 followers, but pushing that out to the student population would be a great way of getting more engagement at these events and participation in leadership positions.
It wouldn’t be fair to put a majority of the reasoning behind this issue solely on the shoulders of the FUSA team. Could it be that there is just not a large interest in the role of FUSA president? This does go along with the idea that promoting the association would encourage people to explore the advantages of joining and consider potential benefits, like for their resume and overall satisfaction of the student body. Perhaps demonstrating to students that running for president and pitching their ideas would serve as an effective method to ensure the implementation of desired changes on campus could be beneficial as well.
There’s no denying FUSA’s significant effort in offering an inclusive and event-filled college experience for all students, but improving their communication methods and ramping up the promotion of their events and positions is crucial to getting the most participation possible.
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