With the Board of Elections releasing the names of the 2018 candidates last Wednesday and campaigning beginning Friday, student body president and vice president candidates are preparing for the upcoming election on Feb. 27. Technician spoke to all of the president and vice president candidates about their past experience, platform and why they deserve students’ votes.
STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT
Alberto Quiroga, fourth-year studying aerospace engineering
Experience: I was in Student Government for three years, both in the executive and the judicial aspects. I was a student conduct board judge, and I was part of the government relations committee up until I became a director during Paul Nolan’s administration.
Platform: Zach and I have a very expansive platform. There are five highlights; the first one is the visibility and inclusiveness of student leadership. Making sure that student government is working for the students and that things are getting done so that students feel free to come talk to us to voice their concerns and issues about the university, and we can see how we can help them out. We want to expand mental health resources by making sure that students are getting the best out of their education and at the same time, their health. Making sure that resources are well funded for mental health. Another one is to further sustainability initiatives. We want to see NC State keep being a leader in the country by saving energy by being a clean university. Expanding on affordable class resources is another point. Students are already paying a lot for tuition and fees, so making sure they don’t have to pay more for class resources such as WebAssign and textbooks. We are exploring options to make class more affordable. Lastly, to increase faculty diversity and overall for the whole university.
Why You Should Vote for Us: Zach and I believe that we want to do the best for NC State because we are driven and passionate leaders, and we want to be sure that we are taking talks into actions and that visibility and accountability are brought back to student government.
Jess Errico, fourth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering
Experience: My first year at State, I came in wanting to be a part of something. The judicial branch is what attracted me the most. The peer-to-peer accountability, discussions and the stage for interacting with students was very attractive to me, so I have been involved in the judicial branch for all four years. I worked my way up, and I am currently the serving student body chief justice.
Platform: We have merged [our platform] into four big pillars, PACK: Professionalism, Advocacy, Communication and Kinship. Thinking about those four items, we are looking to advocate for all students and be professional in our student-to-student and student-to-administration working relations. Communication is critical; we want to have open two-way communication where we reach out to students so they understand what we are doing while actively listening at the same time. Kinship is important because we are all ultimately a part of the Wolfpack. We want every student to feel a part of the Pack and are aware of the resources.
Why You Should Vote for Us: We are two students who have experience that are advocating for students on a wide range of scales and platforms who are ready and wanting to do that for the whole student body.
Mia Connell, third-year studying sociology
Experience: Currently, I am the student body vice president. So I am in charge of the executive branch. Prior to that, I have been a senator for two years. My first year, I represented first year students, and my second year, I represented Poole College of Management. Both of those years I served on the finance committee, and my second year, I was the chairperson of the tuition and fees committee.
Platform: Our platform is built around Student Government’s mission statement. I was at a leadership development workshop, and we talked about how if you want your organization to thrive and bring in members that you value, you have to be true to your mission statement. That really resonated with me. So we broke down our mission statement into a few sections which would be supporting students, advocating for students and improving student government.
Why You Should Vote for Us: I believe that the student body should vote Gabby and I because we have the most successful Student Government experience, and you can see that through our initiatives that have been implemented in the university.
Taylor Pulliam, third-year studying political science
Experience: We have no experience in Student Government. Part of what we wanted to do for running is make Student Government more accessible for students who aren’t necessary in Student Government. We found that a lot of the Student Government meetings seem to be, not necessarily a closed off group of people, but just maybe, well for a lack of a better word it’s closed off. We just want to make that accessible for the student body. Student Government’s supposed to work for the students and be a voice for the students, and who else better to do that than a normal student who goes to class just like everybody else.
Platform: We’re running off the slogan, “A Pack That Works for Everyone.” One of our main goals is just making sure we’re highlighting diversity and inclusion and making sure that there’s a place for everything and there’s a spot for everybody and that everybody’s voice is heard, no matter whether you’re in student government or you’re out or you’re a minority or you’re in the majority. No matter what it is.
Why You Should Vote for Us: Just because I haven’t been in Student Government doesn’t mean I don’t have a track record of getting things done, and that’s all that my track record and past experience has shown. If I know I’ll do it, I know it’ll get done.
STUDENT BODY VICE PRESIDENT
Zach Lewis, third-year studying statistics
Lewis is running alongside Quiroga.
Experience: I have been a senator for the last year. Within that, I have been on the tuition and fees committee, student relations committee and I am also the Student Senate representative on the faculty athletics committee.
Platform: Our platform covers pretty much everything from diversity to mental health and more inclusion. We are looking for more affordable academic resources as far as textbooks and homework. We are also looking for a more visible and transparent Student Government.
Why You Should Vote for Us: Alberto and I are going to bring a new level of visibility and transparency to Student Government so that connection between Student Government and students is no longer like a campaign idea or platform — it’s an expectation.
Meredith Spence Beaulieu, fourth-year Ph.D. student in entomology
Spence Beaulieu is running alongside Errico.
Experience: I got involved with Student Government this past year. I was elected to the role of Graduate Student Association vice president of Student Government relations, which is a joint role within the Student Government executive branch as the director of graduate student relations. It is a new role this year, so I have been working to get grads excited about Student Government, keeping Senate seats filled and working to let the grad students know what is happening in Student Government and why they should care.
Platform: The thing that I would like to emphasize is that we do have specific platform items beyond our core tenets of PACK that are available on our website and our Facebook. When working to form our platform, we wanted to do that in the same way we would run the offices if we are elected to hold them. So we would want to get feedback from students about what issues are important to them and see how we can help with that. That is how we formed our platform in implementing change in those aspects.
Why You Should Vote for Us: The goal of Student Government is to represent students with ethical and accountable public service, and I think Jess and I embody ethics and accountability.
Gabby Dauntain, second-year studying philosophy and political science
Dauntain is running alongside Connell.
Experience: I joined as a first-year senator. My freshman year, I ran in a runoff election for the seat, so that was pretty nerve racking. I ran again for the CHASS senator this year, and I got it […] was appointed to students relations chair. I deal with issues that revolve around student life such as Greek life and housing.
Platform: Our main points are campus diversity, sexual assault and student government improvements. For diversity, I am working on the Women of Color Village. That has been my project this year, as well as regalia rentals and accessibility issues. We want to re-engage students and make sure they are taking the consent education course training against sexual assault. We want to see that program come back. As far as Student Government, executives have done a pretty good job with communication with students compared to other years, but I want to see it increase. Also, finding out what Student Government’s role at this university is going to be. Because some people say it’s a programming body, and some say it is to elevate the voice of the students. We have to agree on what we are trying to accomplish.
Why You Should Vote for Us: I have the experience and initiatives that have been successful. In one sentence, I guess that can be that I get things done.
Cat Duble, third-year studying business administration and communication
Duble is running alongside Pulliam.
Experience: Taylor and I both don’t have any Student Government experience. That’s kind of why we wanted to get involved and go right to the top as soon as we started getting involved. We realized that the Student Government group of people is kind of closed off. It’s really hard to break in to that circle unless you start right at your freshman year. That’s why we’re trying to run so that way we can stop Student Government from being so closed off and be more welcoming. It should be an equal representation of all students, not just the group that represents them. As far as other experience that I have in leadership positions, I am currently the vice president of professional development for the Society of Human Resources at NC State. I communicate a lot with professionals and get them to come to our meetings. I’ve also been director of programs for my sorority […] looked over all programs and events to make sure everything ran smoothly.
Platform: Overall our mission is just to unite the Pack and make a Pack that works for everyone. We really want to get more opinions from the general student population and try to cater to the students so that we can satisfy as many people as we can.
Why You Should Vote for Us: Someone should vote for Taylor and I because we’re both trustworthy, we’re both dependable and we will get things done.
Alberto Quiroga a fourth year studying aerospace engineering, with three years of experience in student government, is running for the position of student body president alongside running mate Zach Lewis.
