The elections for Student Government are close and coming. They have been moved up two weeks from last year, and voting will start on April 9.

“Moving up the election gives the incoming group more time to select their staff,” President Ariel Diamond said. “We wanted to give them more than just the final week of school to get set.”

The goal is to put less pressure on new staff in an effort to cut down costs and become more efficient.

In addition to the change in time, voting will take place on OrgSync as opposed to an independent voting program. Previously, the voting portal had to be bought for the short election period, but since Student Life already pays for OrgSync, there is no additional charge.

“On a college campus, we are only allowed to do online elections, and Student Life already subscribes to OrgSync,” Diamond said. “In years past, it cost us about $4500 for a one- week subscription.”

Less than 10 percent of students on MavZone voted in the last election, and with the switch to the new system,  there is no concern that there will be fewer votes cast this spring.

“We’re still gong to have links on MavZone,” Diamond said. “The process is the same. It’s just the portal that’s different.”

OrgSync is an online “Campus Engagement Network” aiming to coordinate all that goes on in a college campus in one place. It doesn’t replace MavZone. It is more of an extension that centralizes campus activity. Along with the voting system, OrgSync brings a lot of campus to one place, such as event and club registration, fundraising and communication between students and clubs. In order to do all of this before, CMU used a few different systems, paying for all of them.

“It allows us to do all of those things in one place,” Director of Student Life Mitch Karstens said, “and it comes with modules where each club can have their own website. There is also a central calendar where students can go look at everything happening on campus.”

Students can follow activity of all different clubs and organizations on campus. If a student is part of a club or organization’s operations, they can post information and events on that club or organization’s page.

brjthomp@mavs.coloradomesa.edu