Student Government Association (SGA) elections are here once again and the candidates that are running have various levels of experience in SGA; some are serving currently in prominent roles while others are completely new to it.
Students can vote by signing into WINGS and clicking on the homepage announcement about the election. Voting begins Sep. 13 and ends Sep. 17.
Before casting your ballot, check out who is running in the election, why they are running and what their platform is.
Presidential elections
This is the first year of SGA elections where freshmen can vote for president and vice president.
SGA Director of Academic Affairs Samantha Baxter is running for president with Amani Wilson as her vice president. Baxter is a junior English Education and Political Science major, as well as a Model UN Head Delegate, while Wilson is a sophomore International Studies major.
Baxter is running for president to connect with fellow students and foster leadership by giving them opportunities and to continue to support the campus community.
“After serving as the Director of Academic Affairs through the strike and the COVID-19 pandemic, I saw that I could make a difference for the students in times of turmoil by providing a platform and representing them,” said Baxter.
Wilson is new to Student Government and participated with Baxter in Model U.N.
“The way she pitched it to me was she felt that they needed or, hopefully, we need, at a point, new blood inside SGA to better represent the students. We just need more outside sources than the same type of people,” said Wilson.
The duo is running on a platform of “Inclusion, Engagement and Collaboration.” Baxter explained that they will accomplish these goals if elected by working with campus planning committees, promoting diversity and networking through organizations that SGA works with.
“Campus life is an extensive network of connections that ties everyone on campus together and it is SGA’s responsibility to establish relationships with each body on campus,” said Baxter.
According to Wilson, if he and Baxter are elected, their cabinet will consist of students from different colleges as well as different school years.
The opposing ticket includes current Student Body Vice President Adrian Williams, who is also the executive director of the Ohio Student Government Association. Williams is a neuroscience major and is joined on the ticket by Speaker of the House Joe York. York is pursuing a double major in Philosophy and Economics.
Due to an email error, The Wright State Guardian was unable to reach Williams or York prior to the election ending.
We had a chance to speak with them after voting ended.
“We appreciate the campus community coming together and [for] working with SGA as a whole to hold an election,” said Williams. “I am sure either side is fully qualified to do the job. It would be an honor to serve the student body as student body president.”
Williams went on to say that it has been an honor to serve as student body vice president.
“It’s been one of the biggest honors of my life to serve as [Vice President] for the last two years, and I would love to do it my senior year. But, I know that Samantha Baxter and Amani [Wilson] would leave campus in great hands as well,” said Williams
Commuter senator elections
Three candidates are running for the position of Commuter Senator: Mark Stickford, Sabrina D’Alesandro and Nhu Ngoc Honang.
Stickford is a senior Social Science Education major, and he is running due to his desire to make a “direct impact” in SGA, especially when it comes to parking for students.
“While this year is an exception, I as well as countless others have experienced frustration with parking. While this is no normal year, and parking is not everyone’s priority, when we return to normal operations, it will be,” said Stickford.
His platform is to “improve campus amenities, promote student involvement and make parking more efficient and available closer to campus.”
D’Alesandro is a junior Materials Science major minoring in Computer Science, Math and Arabic. She is the president of Engineers Without Borders and the CECS Dean’s Student Advisory Board. Her goals are to encourage Wright State University to adopt more online learning options and to create resources for commuter students to more easily get involved on campus.
“Many of us feel isolated living away from campus, work full time, or have a long commute adding to the stress of school. I am extremely passionate about helping others, and I want to be able to ease the burden from the commuter students,” said D’Alesandro.
As of now, Honang was unavailable for comment.
College Senators
Three of the university’s colleges have candidates running for senate positions.
One of these candidates is Gullzada Anwari, a senior in biomedical engineering and pre-med major. If elected, they will create a system to bring student concerns to SGA and the dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS).
“I would also be working along the student body, mainly engineering students to bring opportunities to students and address issues and concerns about classes in the Engineering department,” said Anwari.
Freshman Victoria Solomon is running as a senate candidate for the College of Liberal Arts (COLA) to “serve and represent COLA in a positive and uplifting way.”
Her platform is based on promoting liberal arts, increasing the availability of internship programs to students and ensuring that senators are held accountable for their actions.
“It is important as a senator to me that I am constantly fighting the good fight for my peers, future colleagues and educators,” said Solomon.
Zayneb Moumkine, who is running as a senator for the College of Science and Math, was unavailable for comment.
Use this link to vote now:
https://portal.wright.edu/node/17625
