This year’s Student Government Association elections resulted in the election of Richard Davis Jr. as the president and a runoff for the vice president position between Claudio Franc and Jazelle Harris.
On April 13, elections came to a close with 1,654 students voting. Alberto Valenzuela was elected as the incoming chief justice, and senators included Kirstyn George representing the college of science and technology, Jasmine Washington representing the college of nursing and health, Samantha Messina representing the college of education, and Jody Bennett, Karley Bordelon, Anna Crawford and Brittany Calecas representing the college of arts, humanities and social sciences.
Franc explained how he feels about the runoff.
“When I found out there was a run off, I was not all that surprised,” said Franc. “With four strong candidates running for vice president, I did not expect to gain a majority of the votes outright. I am thankful for the fact that I was one of the candidates that got enough votes to enter into the runoff, and I am excited for this upcoming week of elections because I know that my competitor, Jazelle Harris, is an equally strong opponent, and no matter how the elections turn out, SGA will be in good hands.”
The official vice president candidate will be announced on Thursday, April 19 at 5 p.m. in the Student Union Breezeway. Davis explained that as president he wants to continue projects that he started along with the current SGA President, Seth Leto.
“As SGA president, I am excited to be the chief representative for the student body,” said Davis. “There are a lot of things that Seth, our current SGA president, and I have started that I would like to continue. A few projects that I would like to finish up are our Lion Statue Project and plots for the National Pan-Hellenic Council.”
Hopes to expand on ideas Davis implemented as vice president will also be a part of what he has in mind for the future of SGA and the student body.
“As vice president, I also helped to create a system to bring back organizational grants,” said Davis. “As SGA president, I look to fully implement this system so that we can provide much needed financial assistance to our over 100 student organizations when it comes to programming and events.”
Other ideas Davis is looking to accomplish include expanding the cabinet positions “to reach out to more departments and students on campus.”
“One of the biggest things that I hope to accomplish as SGA president is to improve student life by partnering with more student organizations and departments to give students more opportunities to have fun and meet new people outside of the classroom,” said Davis.
