College Park Mayor Andrew Fellows addresses the Student Government Association on Oct. 21 for the last time while in office.
Mayor Andy Fellows encouraged members of the SGA to vote in the upcoming city elections during the group’s Wednesday night meeting.
The Nov. 3 election is the first time in more than 20 years that every district race and the mayoral race are contested.
“There’s always a lot of reasons to turn out to the polls on College Park’s election day, but especially this year because you really have a choice on your council members and your mayor,” said Fellows, who is stepping down after three terms.
READ MORE: UMD SGA won’t endorse City Council candidates for upcoming election
Although the highest turnout of voters in the 2013 election was in District 3 — where 15.9 percent of registered voters cast their ballot — only about 600 students were registered to vote in the last election.
Students “are the silent majority of College Park,” Fellows said. “Your voice is mostly not heard in the polls. As much as you can, work to turn out your fellow students.”
District 3 incumbent Robert Day and District 4 councilwoman and mayoral candidate Denise Mitchell also attended the Student Government Association’s meeting to discuss their platforms.
Mitchell said she wants to work to incorporate students into the city’s boards and commissions, as well as work collaboratively on housing, sustainability and parking issues.
The Department of Transportation Services is planning to eliminate on-campus resident parking by 2017 because of the development projects taking over available lots.
“We want to work with the university to assess what kinds of parking options we have going forward,” Mitchell said. “We’re working on bringing in a bike share program, and we want to educate students and residents about these alternate modes of transportation so there’s less cars in the community.”
Day, whom the SGA endorsed in 2013, said he has always been a strong advocate for students during his four years in the council, and echoed Fellows’ sentiment that they should get involved.
“Your voice needs to be heard. Without your voice, people assume you don’t care,” he said. “We need to make College Park a top-20 town as soon as possible, and we need your help as students; we need your help as people who may end up staying here.”
Day agreed that encouraging students and residents to use public transportation would help with issues created by the lack of parking.
“We have to work with the university and the county to look at land we have and figure out a way to get more parking garages in place,” he said. “It’s not going to be easy so we have to look at alternatives, too.”
Mitchell and Day are just some of the candidates who have visited the SGA this election season, said Cole Holocker, student liaison to the City Council.
District 1 Councilman Patrick Wojahn, who is running for mayor, has spoken to the group, along with District 3 candidate John Rigg and District 3 incumbent Stephanie Stullich. Ryan Belcher, a 2015 alumnus who served on the SGA and is seeking a District 3 seat, has also attended a meeting.
“We didn’t turn down anyone who reached out and asked us to come,” Holocker said. “It’s always great to give candidates the opportunity to engage with the students and give the students the opportunity to ask important questions when it comes down to making their choices in the city election.”
READ MORE: SGA hosts College Park candidates as election approaches
Although it is hearing from candidates, the SGA will not endorse any in the upcoming election, as the group did in 2013.
“Frankly, endorsing candidates created a bit of a toxic environment last time around, in that it created a students-versus-long-term-residents mentality that really turned the campaign negative,” SGA President Patrick Ronk said. “It made it very divisive, and all the work the students and the university are doing with the City Council is about ending divisiveness.”
Despite that, SGA Vice President of Student Affairs Katherine Swanson said the visits are important.
“It gives students a better idea of who might be representing them if elected, and it also gives students who are representing other students a chance to take back what they’ve heard to their constituents,” she said.
