UW Oshkosh Student Association elections were held Tuesday, March 10 and Wednesday, March 11 at various campus locations to vote for next year’s OSA president, vice president and senators.

Jordan Schettle, the current OSA president, and Graham Sparks, the current vice president, were running unopposed in this year’s election.

According to Sparks, their main focus is dealing with UWO’s budget.

“Student representatives held our meeting this past weekend here at UW Oshkosh where a few of the significant leaders that are involved with the budget situation throughout the state were present,” Sparks said.

Sparks said they are trying to involve Chancellor Leavitt in the budget process.

“Jordan and myself have been doing our best to bring Chancellor Leavitt to the OSA Senate and Assembly meetings, and we commend his transparency throughout this whole situation,” Sparks said.

According to Sparks, their goal is to increase student involvement in regards to the budget.

“We understand the severity of this matter,” Sparks said. “With that, we are doing our very best to reach out to our fellow students for their input, and we look forward to continue doing so.”

Sparks said the budget has always been an important issue to OSA, and is now even more important because of their positions in the OSA.

“In regards to the budget, it has not only been Jordan’s and my focus since this situation has arisen, but increasingly so as UW Oshkosh makes specific decisions within the Leadership Council, of which the OSA President serves as the official voice of the student body,” Sparks said.

According to Sparks, this year’s election was not as actively advertised because there were no competing opponents.

“It is inevitable that this year’s election has less publicity, seeing that Jordan and myself are running unopposed,” Sparks said. “Last year had three slates of the candidates vying for the president and vice president position.”

Sparks also said they wanted to focus more time on accomplishing their tasks than spending the time on advertising.

“Jordan and myself have been working very hard and, quite frankly, are focused more on executing our jobs than focusing our efforts and time for a campaign that faces no other official opponents,” Sparks said.

According to UWO sophomore Emily Peterson, students should definitely care about all upcoming elections.

“It is important to be involved [with] local elections because it affects myself and people close to me,” Peterson said. “The decisions that the elected candidates make ultimately impact the entire student body, so I believe all students should go vote.”

Bailey Mickelson, a UWO sophomore, said announcements made in advance would be beneficial for students interested in voting in campus elections.

“More advance notice would definitely be good,” Mickelson said. “I didn’t know about the upcoming election until the day they were held, so getting the word out earlier would have been helpful.”

Mickelson said any campus elections could use better forms of communication to get information out.

“More noticeable signs and posters in Reeve would be useful to let students know about upcoming elections,” Mickelson said. “Also more noticeable emails because a lot of students just delete emails they get from the school, or they glance at them but then forget about what they read.”