Georgia State’s Student Government Association (SGA) cancelled their second scheduled debate set to take place in the University Commons on April 2. The cancellation was due to decreased turnout at the previously held formal debate on March 27, according to SGA’s Elections Commission’s Chairperson Nyomi Haynes.
“Out of the two debates, the Speaker’s Auditorium is a bigger turnout. [And] After going from last years debate where it was overflowing out of capacity of 400, so now we can barely fill one complete section, we said OK, and then some of our executive board candidates had scheduling conflicts as well,” she said.
Haynes said the cancellation was made early that week, and candidates were informed of the cancellation. However, the person in charge of Public Relations (PR) did not relay the information to the public.
“We cancelled it earlier this week. We put out an announcement Monday,” she said. “We emailed the candidates, and I also checked with my boss, but in terms of letting the public know, the person who got put in charge of PR happened to drop the ball on that.”
Haynes also said it can be difficult for a person who has multiple responsibilities.
“You know, sometimes, when you’re juggling a lot of things, you may drop a ball on one end,” she said.
Haynes also said SGA decided the time would be better spent preparing for the upcoming elections.
“We decided that our energy would be better focused at prepping for the election which is next week. So we decided that we would cancel it, and most of our candidates were comfortable with that idea,” she said.
Georgia State student Nicole Langston said she felt the lack of notification was irresponsible of SGA.
“I feel like it was unprofessional. A government who is supposed to serve its students should give notice to cancellations and any changes that may occur. That’s what an efficient government is all about,” she said.
Haynes apologized on behalf of SGA and said she hopes this would not affect voters.
“So for anyone who showed up and didn’t get any sort of explanation, we will convey our most sincerest apologies, and we hope they don’t use that … as a reason not to vote because at the end of the day, it’s not really us [current SGA members] who’s being elected to office, it’s the candidates,” she said.
