When choosing the name for her party, Volunteer Voice presidential candidate Sarah Keeton wanted to emphasize what she thought was the most important aspect of student government.
“I think the most important thing that I can do is empower students,” Keeton said. “Students need to be given back the voice they once had, (or) maybe they have never had it … I think students really need to feel like what they think about what’s going on at this university is heard.”
The junior from Rogersville, Tenn., has been involved in student government at UT since her freshman year. After working with the Student Senate, the Panhellenic Council and serving as the Undergraduate Academic Council chair this year, Keeton said it is clear to her that students have grown apathetic toward SGA because their voices are not heard.
“They don’t feel like they are part of the decisions that take place here,” she said. “We’re just the ones that receive the effects of those decisions.”
Keeton said her focus if elected will be on strengthening SGA to allow students a larger role in the decision-making process.
“Decisions are made all the time that students have no part in,” she said. “We should be the first to find out about anything. We are the university. It wouldn’t exist without us.”
Tackling the “immense bureaucracy” at a school as large as UT will be an obstacle, Keeton said, but she said she still feels students should be at the front of the decision making process. Students should also be the first to hear about those decisions, she said.
When President John W. Shumaker announced that several academic programs were to be affected by the state’s cutbacks, Keeton said the university wasn’t the first place to inform her about the impending changes.
“The first place I heard the news was on the local news stations,” Keeton said. “We didn’t receive an e-mail from Dr. Shumaker until the next day. If anyone should be hearing about this before the rest of the city or state does, it should be us.”
Whether or not she wins at the elections on April 1 and April 2, Keeton said she will continue to work for the student body.
“I feel that I’m the best person for the job because I care for the students here,” she said. “This is what I want to spend my senior year doing: serving the students in every way I can. And whether or not I’m elected, that’s what I am going to be doing.”
Volunteer Voice’s vice presidential candidate is Adam Prater, who also has experience in SGA, serving as SGA historian in 2002. Keeton said there is no one else she would rather have as her running mate.
“Adam and I go way back,” she said. “We get along on a lot of different levels.”
