Scottsdale Community College students are feeling “The Bern.”

For the third time in a mock presidential vote conducted by the school’s Council of Student Affairs, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) came out on top in the polling. These results coincide with results collected from the last poll, conducted in September. This is part of many different activities that the Council of Student Affairs is putting together in order to make the student body more responsive and increase interaction. Council of Student Affairs Chair Diego Leal, discussed the reasons for this activity, what the Council of Student Affairs found and what they plan to do moving forward.

“With it being an election season we did want to be a little more proactive with scheduling events then kinda what the status quo was for civic engagement in past years,” Leal said.

It seemed important to Leal that the Council of Student Affairs got more involved with their fellow students during the election process. To that end, the Council of Student Affairs held events for Constitution Day, National Voter Registration Day and the Iowa caucuses. Both times that the Council of Student Affairs put on a “mock draft,” Sanders came out on top. In addition, the top three finalists remained unchanged from previous polls. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton finished second both times (by double digits) behind Sanders but held on to the second-place vote solidly, with businessman Donald Trump doing the same in third place. Among all the results Leal was not at all surprised that Sanders was dominating.

“I definitely don’t think it’s any secret that Bernie does well with younger people,” Leal said. “I think the free college tuition was something that definitely resonates with students who are applying.”

Moving forward, continued student engagement with new and intriguing activities is the Council of Student Affairs’ top priority. Leal saw a documentary recently called “Bring it To the Table Project,” and described the methods used in the documentary as “side of the road” interviews, where otherwise unfamiliar people were engaged in political discussion. Leal was inspired by this and now has the Council of Student Affairs in the middle of a similar project in which they wish to be able to engage students in the making of their own documentary. SCC’s Council of Student Affairs have even been trying to get the other Maricopa Community Colleges involved in the project as well. With that in mind, students should be on the lookout for Council of Student Affairs representatives with cameras in hand.