Princeton Theological Seminary elects student body president

Second-year seminarian Jerria Martin was elected on Apr. 26 as the Seminary’s Student Government Association president. After having lost by a slim number of votes last year, Martin decided to run again this year.

The last time a female president was elected was in 2005.

“It may be that most people aren’t as interested in student government because this is a graduate school — a graduate seminary,” Martin said. “We’re required vigorous hours of studying,” she added, explaining that seminarians are less involved in extracurricular activities than undergraduates.

Martin said the fact that fewer people are willing to expend their time and focus on extracurriculars makes it particularly important to have dedicated student leaders.

“I just think it was necessary [to step up],” Martin said. “And I feel like I would be doing the Princeton community a big disservice if I didn’t lend my God-given talents and gifts to the seminary.”

Jordan Congdon, a second-year student at the Seminary, lauded the election outcome.

“I love Jerria,” Congdon said. “Jerria’s the perfect person for the position because she is charismatic; she’ll fight for the student body — I think she cares more about the students than she cares about looking good or making the school think she’s a good person. She can actually make some things happen.”

According to first-year student Sammie Evans, some campaign tactics employed led to contested results. After students questioned whether Martin followed correct election procedures, the SGA voted to have a second-round election. However, Martin’s opponent dropped out of the race before second-round voting began.

During the campaign, Martin sent emails en masse to other Seminary students, which is prohibited in the SGA election statutes.

“It said that each email must be individually addressed to each person, and that’s how I did it, and that’s actually how the guys did it in the past — that in every election I have seen, I’ve received mass emails,” Martin said. “Even the current president and vice president, I have received emails from them en masse.”

According to Martin, the SGA strives to lead the campus in assisting students who are committed to leadership in the church and in the community. Martin also serves as a Hallelujah Seminarian, an internship position for Princeton University’s Office of Religious Life.

“To have that position as SGA president here and then be a campus minister intern at the University, I think it’s going to be easy to fill that gap and build that bridge between the University and the seminary,” Martin said.

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SGA vice president-elect Daniel Yang said the goals of next year’s SGA will be to create a greater sense of community and take on a “pastoral responsibility.” The newly elected student government has not decided what community service projects the seminary will take on.

“In terms of the service project, we have to be adaptable to what the community needs, so I think right now we’re in the process of figuring out the communal needs instead of making rash decisions,” Yang said. “We don’t have concrete plans specifically because it would serve an injustice to do something without really knowing the community very well first.”

Yang said he ran for vice president rather than president specifically because he believes in Martin.

“She’s a great motivator; she lives out her leadership in such a graceful and genuine way,” Yang said. “And for me, I just wish to support her vision in any way possible. And so I felt strongly that she was the best candidate for it.”

Martin said there would be some sacrifices once she gets heavily involved as the SGA president but felt that she experienced a “calling” to take on the presidency.

“Just like I was called at 18 to the ministry, I felt like I was being called to being SGA president because God was going to use me in a wonderful way,” Martin said. “And that’s what I look to happen next year, just for God to use us, the SGA, in a wonderful mind-blowing way.”

Correction: Due to incorrect information provided to The Daily Princetonian, a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Princeton Theological Seminary student government president Jerria Martin is the first female to hold the position. In fact, she is the first female president since 2005. The first female elected to that office was in 1977. The 'Prince' regrets the error.