The Student Government Association’s Series 2 and 3 elections have wrapped up and the results are in. A total of 542 voters turned out for this round of elections. Here’s a look at the winners and what they plan to do with their positions.
AVP of Academic Affairs: Zobia Bokhari- 69.92%
“One of the main things that was behind me running for this position was, I’m neurodivergent. I have ADHD, and I receive accommodations for that. But I feel like accessibility at Rowan in general hasn’t really been the greatest. You can receive accommodations, but I think there’s a lot of hurdles that you have to jump through in order to receive them… [I would also] like to work with the Accessibility Services Office, and make sure like students know what resources are offered.”
AVP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Erwin Wambi- 44.46%
Wambi wants to use his experiences coming from a country that is not accepting of the LGBTQ community to inform his work with SGA, as well as establish more contact between groups and organizations on campus.
“First of all, [I want to] foster a strong connection between the cultural clubs we have on campus and different student organizations, because I feel like there is a gap between them… so I want to bridge the gap between like cultural clubs. I also want to advocate for more inclusive policies… in my position, I have to create and support programs that educate the student body, and the faculty on what DEI really means.”
AVP of Student Life: Rayna Foushee- 49.44%
“I’m happy and I’m grateful about the win for everybody that voted for me. I’m looking forward to the position in the next year. The whole point that I wanted to do is to really be able to connect with students and be a voice for students if they do have any concerns on campus and having somebody that they can like come to for like all communities on campus, so just having somebody that they can rely on to like advocate for them for like different aspects of student life and like just overall improvement.”
Recording Secretary: Justus French- 68.81%
“The most pressing issue that the previous recording secretary ran into was that the newsletter and events related to student government aren’t being pushed out as much as they preferably should be to the general student body. And the bottlenecking of that process really is the total amount of signups or registrations through ProfLink as of right now. So even though a bunch of the clubs are using ProfLink to organize events and such, the general student body isn’t as participatory as we would like. So that would be my main goal in being recording secretary, as well as continuing to head up all the other initiatives that the previous recording secretary took on, such as the newsletter committee, and of course, recording all the minutes to make sure everyone knows what’s happening.”
AVP of Facilities and Operations: Brody Schneider- 68.26%
“One of my major objectives is to improve a lot of the student spaces on campus, as many of them (especially those that are outside) are really underutilized right now. Obviously, it’s hard to sit outside in the winter when it’s 20 degrees outside, but I want there to be improvements to these spaces now so that throughout the spring and next fall, they are more utilized by students. My committee and I are specifically targeting improvements to Robinson Green, as well as looking into potentially adding more outdoor spaces around campus… I feel that I can do a lot of good for the campus in this position over the next year, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
AVP of Governmental Relations: Nicholas Williams- 66.23%
“I think it’s important to give the students more of a voice and let them know what SGA is doing. And I want to be that advocate for them outside of the student government and be an advocate for our community, to our municipal government, to our state government and connecting with other student government associations. I feel that the student government here hasn’t really done a good job connecting with other student governments for their guidance and leadership, because we can learn something from one another. Essentially, I just want to also carry out the work that my predecessor will have left and continue the work that the SGA executive committee has done this year. They’ve done a fantastic job. I think the restructuring of student aid was very necessary and needs to still be a priority going forward. I think that we need to make sure that we have a seat at the table when it comes to your plan and make sure that we’re going with the most sustainable and affordable options for student bodies, so we don’t see big hikes in our tuition or housing rates.”
AVP of Health, Wellness, and Safety: Dhruvi Patel- 48.52%
“My plan for my position is to create a more meaningful and deeper impact on the community with regard to mental health. As a student who has received resources on campus through the Wellness Center, I encourage all students to go and try, at least to get the resources of the Wellness Center because they’re very helpful. I want to make a difference when it comes to that because there are students that I know who haven’t heard about what resources the Wellness Center has to offer, and/or the Accessibility Service Office has offered too… I want every student to have… a college career… that can be manageable because as college students, we go through a countless amount of stress… I would love to help my fellow peers and students.”
AVP of Public Relations and Special Events: Hope Campbell- 76.56%
“With this position, I plan on continuing to bring innovation and advancing Rowan’s SGA social media platforms. I will prioritize students seeing a piece of themselves being represented while viewing SGA accounts. Having these platforms as our melting pot shows the unity of our student body. Showing off our vibrant community that we are all a part of.”
AVP of University Advancement: Matt O’Laughlin- 38.37%
“University Advancement deals with all of the philanthropy service events going on around campus so the student service events, reaching out to alumni to donate, if anyone wants to make donations to the school, stuff like that. So that’s what the job entails, a lot of what the AVP job is. I’m going to continue to do the work that Landon did, who was my chairman emeritus… we’ll be putting on a lot of student-led service events, opportunities for students to get service hours, assisting with things like the SHOP… on the main campus, and then also on the two other schools… also highlight things that are coming in Rowan’s future like the veterinary school falls under the namesake of advancing the university.”
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