Stony Brook University student Will Hackett started a “Vote No Confidence in SBU USG” Facebook event to encourage students to vote no confidence in the upcoming Undergraduate Student Government election, taking place from April 27 to May 1 on SOLAR.

“USG has not been serving the needs of the students and has major flaws,” Hackett said on the Facebook event’s description. “If you do not feel a candidate will change this system, you can vote ‘no confidence.’ The organization needs a people with a solid plan of action as to how they’re going to change it from the inside out.”

Voting “no confidence” means the voter does not believe any of the candidates are fit to fulfill the duties of the position.

The event page has attracted 92 “attendees” and is encouraging student-voters to be aware of the fact that they have another option besides voting for a candidate or voting for no one.

“It’s not that I don’t want anyone to get voted in to USG,” Hackett said. “I want people who are going to go into USG and change it.”

Hackett said he has many issues with USG, including its alleged lack of transparency.

“We don’t really know what the money is specifically being spent on,” Hackett said. “There should be a lot more transparency in the budget and USG in general.”

Hackett said he wanted to run for a position this year, but felt he did not have the time in his schedule to fully dedicate himself to USG. He is also a resident assistant in Toscanini College.

Last year, every candidate for an Executive Council position ran unopposed. Hackett said if a student did not like the candidate, the student should not have to vote for the candidate or not vote at all; a third option should be there. He also said that the representatives do not represent the students they are supposed to.

“People should have the right to say they don’t support the way things are,” Hackett said.

This Facebook event page has attracted the attention from current USG members as well. Mallory Rothstein, assistant to the current USG Vice President of Academic Affairs Steven Adelson and former USG executive vice president, shared her concerns about what would happen if the” no confidence” votes should surpass the votes for candidates.

“If no one gets elected, then there would have to essentially be another future election which would allow for a significantly less grace period for new officials to learn from past officials,” Rothstein said.

Rothstein also said that voting “no confidence” does not solve the problem of better candidates running because a good leader cannot be forced to run.

It will be up to the Elections Board if “no confidence” will appear on this year’s ballot. Historically, the option has not been on the ballot.

Current senators asked Hackett to share what would happen in the case positions do not get voted in, and he complied.

Hackett does not want everyone to vote “no confidence;” he wants people to vote that way if they are unsatisfied with how things are being conducted within USG.

“My intent is not to have no USG next year,” Hackett explained. “Voting ‘no confidence’ gives us, as a student population, the opportunity to say we don’t like what’s going on.”