With student body elections coming up, we looked into some of the students running for office and took a look at the campaign teams running for elections. This year’s campaign teams are Unite, D.U.O 4 SHSU, H.E.A.R.T and We Are __.
Each campaign team takes on the campaign board, also known as a ticket, which is composed of at least five positions; president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and chief of staff. Students run for their positions under these teams and when elected, the teams are elected as a whole into the Student Government Association (SGA) board.
The Unite campaign has set its focus on uniting, supporting and representing the student body. Political science major Carsyn Allen is running as the student body president under the ticket team Unite.
Current vice president of SGA and campaigning for student body president under the ticket team H.E.A.R.T, LaYauna Bonds says that her campaign team stands to give students a voice and allow them to express themselves.
“I truly want to be the voice of the student body and have an open-door policy,” Bonds said. “Sometimes it can be hard coming to go somewhere you do not know and I just want to have an impact in allowing people to come to express how they feel and us resolving it and not just talking about it.”
Although the SGA wants to implement change within the student body, there are limitations to what they can do. One of the most contested issues on campus is parking, although it is one of the limitations SGA has no control over.
“The question that everybody asks or thinks about, without even saying it of course will definitely be parking.” said Madison Ventura, who is campaigning for student body president. “We do not have jurisdiction over parking, I’ve seen it happen we’ve talked about it, there’s been conversation about it, but as of today we do not control parking.”
Ventura, campaigning under the ticket team We Are __ said that even though there are some limited powers, that will not stop the SGA from hearing their concerns.
“The best way to describe [SGA] is the voice, the channel for students to express their concern to us,” Ventura said. “Which right now we have a module on the SGA website to hear student votes.”
Running for secretary and campaigning under the ticket D.U.O 4 SHSU, Summer Davis explained the importance of the SGA and why students should have a voice in the elections.
“SGA has a lot of pull within the administration building because it is student government,” Davis said. “Voting for who you think represents who you think is best and who you think will actually bring things to the table and do the things that you feel will better your experience here at Sam is the most important thing.”
The student government elections will begin on April 6-7. For more information on the elections contact SGA at https://www.shsu.edu/dept/dean-of-students/organizations/sga/
