On Friday, April 4, Wright State University's Student Government Association held an event in the Union Market where they welcomed students to get free slices of pizza and raffle tickets. Students took their seats and waited eagerly for the announcements of who would serve on next year's SGA.
Event and atmosphere
Upon coming to the Union Market seating area, attendees were greeted with a small crowd of students wearing "I voted" stickers, which SGA made for their elections this year.
Pizzas with various toppings were provided on a table, along with bottled water for guests, both of which were free. There was also a table displaying the three available prizes for raffle that evening, which included a karaoke machine, a TV and a LEGO cat. Each attendee got a free raffle ticket, with their choice to enter in the raffle for any of the prizes.
Amana Koeller is the current policy administrator for SGA, meaning that she is in charge of a lot of things, including elections. She planned the event and got up on the podium to announce the upcoming SGA members.
"It's really great to be here to recognize everyone and all the students who stepped up to serve the voters, who made their voices heard, and then the leaders will represent us in the years. I [also] want to give a sincere thank you to every student who voted," Koeller said.
In her speech, Koeller also said a lot about what the SGA does and its goals as an organization.
"[SGA] is always on the lookout for committed members to aid in creating positive change with the university. We do have director and executive positions available for appointment in the coming months, and more information will be released on that in the future. I say that mostly as a reminder that regardless of the results today, there's still additional opportunities within student government and outside of student government as well, and whether you're doing it in student government or not, we obviously look forward to seeing everything that you can accomplish anyway," Koeller said.
After that, Koeller began to announce the long-awaited results of the 2025-26 SGA election.
Race results
Many of the senatorial candidates ran unopposed this year, although there were some that held strong competition, with two strong candidates running for both the College of Science and Math and the College of Liberal Arts.
For the College of Liberal Arts, the winner was Grazier Bolha. For more information about Bolha and their platform, students can click here to read about the insights they shared at the Meet the Candidates event.
The Raj Soin College of Business Senator for the upcoming year is Mayank Kumar Murarka.
Yashoda Omkaresha won the race for the College of Science and Math Senator. More can be read about her under the same article that covered Bolha.
The College of Health, Education and Human Services Senator will be Mylie Green. More can be read about her, as well as other senators who ran unopposed, in this article.
The Commuter Senator is Mia Beemsterboer, and the Residential Senator is Siobhan O'Boyle, both of whom are in the same article as Green.
Lastly, Koeller announced the winning student body Presidential duo for the upcoming year. The pair ran unopposed, but the audience still cheered and hollered when they heard their names announced.
The President is Shloka Ravinuthala, who is the current College of Engineering and Computer Science Senator, and the Vice President is Eimaan Virani, the current commuter senator.
Both Ravinuthala and Virani are excited and ready to take on their roles. More about their platforms can be read in this article, and they also answered questions regarding their goals and feelings about officially having the positions.
New Presidential duo's goals
Ravinuthala shared that she thinks it is essential that WSU become more closely related to the municipal government surrounding the campus, specifically Fairborn and Beavercreek. She shared that she has experience in and knowledge of building connections such as these, and she is excited to bring them to WSU's SGA.
"I feel great. This is an incredible opportunity, and I'm so excited for what I could do for the Wright State community next year. I do know that I am a little young, but I am dedicated, and I think that I would do a good job, and I hope that students know that they can come to me with their concerns, and I would advocate and be that voice for them," Ravinuthala said, when asked how she felt about the news.
Virani expressed her intentions to make recommendations to the Senate, since she will be leading it. One that she expressed was the idea of putting up posters in the respective colleges or community areas for students to increase facial recognition, as well as to spread information about what the role of a Senator is. She intends to have her Senate pass bills for the betterment of WSU.
When asked her feelings about having officially received the role of VP, Virani said, "I feel excited about it. I feel like I saw a lot of problems throughout my time on SGA, like I feel like everyone knows me, and [Ravinuthala] have only been doing it for semester, and so we're very new to the organization as a whole, and I feel like we're still very confused, and so it'll definitely be a learning curve for not only like me in SGA as a person, but me as VP as well, being able to figure that out. But I'm very excited to be, you know, working with the senators. I love the Senate."
The new SGA term will officially start over the summer, so students can look forward to the new SGA members taking their places as the next school year comes into full swing.
