Students voting in the upcoming Student Association election may notice one thing missing from the ballot: a female name.
Alice Liou, current vice president for finance, has been involved in the SA for four years. She said she is upset by the way the SA is being run.
“I think females don’t want to deal with the bullshit,” Liou said.
SA Vice President for Multicultural Affairs Maryam Belly said she thinks it’s sad there are no females running for the SA executive board.
“There are many strong and intelligent women on this campus who would’ve done great jobs with any of these positions,” Belly said. “I think it is unfortunate that their schedules or priorities have made it hard for them to run.”
For some, the lack of gender diversity went initially unnoticed. SA Program Coordinator Kristen Carr said at her first glance at the candidate list, she didn’t realize no females were running.
“After I realized it, I thought, ‘Where did all the women go?’” Carr said.
According to Liou, girls have to work much harder in any SA position, to not only prove themselves as a leader, but also as a woman. She explained that joining the SA is like joining a “boys’ club.”
“As girls, it’s a double-edged sword,” Liou said. “It’s hard to work on a team that men already have an advantage on.”
Even though the SA will be male-dominated, Carr said she believes everything will still run smoothly.
“When guys are all together, they can do great things,” she said.
Liou said while many of the candidates preach uniting the SA e-board as one of their main goals, this will be a hard feat to accomplish.
“I think the fact that we don’t have any new blood, so to speak, is kind of a disappointing factor,” Liou said.
According to Liou, if the SA continues to function the way it is now, it’s going to be turned over to the University.
“When a student wants to get something done, they’re not going to be able to,” Liou said.
Belly also mentioned write-in candidates shouldn’t be overlooked.
Nicole Lander is running for VP for programming, as a write-in. Belly said she believes the campus should give her more attention than we usually give write-ins because she would be the only woman campaigning on the ballot.