Zachery Eddinger, a third-year studying political science and current student senator and assistant director of government affairs, is running for student body president for the 106th session of NC State’s Student Government. His running mate is Alexander Rivas, also a third-year studying political science, and is currently a non-member of Student Government.

Eddinger said their campaign addresses four key pillars: transparency, advocacy, safety on campus and free speech. He said these ideas can be achievable if Student Government is able to talk directly to the student body.

“I’ve been with Student Government for the past three years, ever since the 103rd session. And from what I’ve seen, it’s mostly just, well, political agendas,” Eddinger said. “At times, it feels like if you want to be heard to advocate, you have to go to Student Government. For some people, it’s really confusing … And for that reason, our main idea is a boots-on-the-ground approach.”

Eddinger coined their approach the “Odyssey Initiative,” saying this would be instituted through an executive order within the first 100 days of the administration. He said their boots-on-the-ground approach through the initiative would involve cabinet members attending meetings of various clubs and organizations to understand their wants and needs.

The Eddinger-Rivas platform states that there will also be “a structured system of follow-up meetings to ensure needs do not go unaddressed.” 

“Instead of them having to come to us, we go to them,” Eddinger said.

Eddinger stated that one of the biggest problems facing students right now is the obstacles to free speech. As someone who carries a pocket constitution, Eddinger feels that movements like the Know Your Rights campaign need to be expanded.

“I know there’s a lot of stress from the federal government. I know there’s plenty of stress from NC State’s administration as a whole, but also other students as well. Some people feel threatened in the classroom to speak,” Eddinger said. 

“I feel like as student body president, vice president, we really need to speak up for them. We need to talk with administration, try to cooperate with them, really show them that people have their rights to protest everything like that,” Eddinger said.

A key responsibility of the student body president is their role as a voting member of the Board of Trustees. Eddinger referenced a speech by former Student Body President Allison Markert from the 104th session where she spoke about putting on different hats for her role as a Board of Trustee member and student body president.

“For me personally, I’m going to try to combine both worlds…,” Eddinger said. “And that’s where the advocacy pillar comes into play. Because I’m going to rely on every single one of the students out there to come out and tell me what they want. To be heard. … Without the student body, without support from them, there is no student body president, in my opinion.”

Eddinger and Rivas said they are willing to vote against the majority on the Board of Trustees if needed. Rivas noted that their position to fulfill the needs of students as student-elected officers drives this perspective. 

Eddinger also spoke about the need for more self-defense classes to improve student safety on campus.

“Personally, I don’t drive a car up and back from campus … And sometimes when we’re coming back from a late Senate meeting, I really do feel scared. Even as a guy, I feel scared,” Eddinger said. “There’s not a lot of lighting, and while that’s mostly a city of Raleigh issue, I feel like one thing we can do is provide more opportunities for self-defense.”

Eddinger took a kickboxing class his freshman year and said it was extremely useful.

“Granted, I don’t carry boxing gloves on me all the time, but I feel like having more opportunities like that would be really beneficial for students,” Eddinger said. “I think safety is really crucial, especially in some areas you go in some parts of campus [where] it’s really dark. Obviously, some lights, they just aren’t on. And I feel like if we have an opportunity, maybe for students, like a hotline or something like that to report [these issues] to … we can build as a community so everyone is safe from harm.”

Eddinger served as chair of Student Government’s board of elections during the 2024-2025 academic year and cited record turnout for Student Government elections last spring, with nearly 4,000 votes cast. He said he sent his board of election commissioners to the clubs and organizations they belonged to to encourage voter turnout.

“I feel like just because of my experience and also my love of statutes … I’d be able to actively and dutifully perform the role of student body president,” Eddinger said.

Rivas said his role as an administrative assistant at a nonprofit organization has prepared him for the student body vice president position, despite not having served in Student Government previously.

“I run a lot of meetings. I take a lot of notes — a lot of notes. I correlate correspondence between our nonprofit and other nonprofits across the triangle,” Rivas said. “I have that experience of sort of administrating people, getting stuff done, which I would love to bring into the government position.”

Eddinger and Rivas met through Mock Trial at NC State, an extracurricular activity where a team of six to 12 students receive a fictional case file and compete against other schools who received the same case in the spring. Eddinger said knowing statutes, rules of evidence and facts of the case are key components to a mock trial, and his and Rivas’s “common love” for history and statutes are part of the reason they’re running on the same ticket.

“Alex, he’s a pretty bright guy whenever it comes to that stuff,” Eddinger said. “So whenever I was considering who I wanted for my running mate, who would be capable of really helping me dive into statutes, come up with new initiatives, I thought, [for] one, Alex would be great because he can learn statutes, he’s great with them all.”

Eddinger said Rivas’s position as an “outsider” from Student Government also played a role in deciding who his running mate would be because Rivas would bring a new and different perspective to Student Government.

“In my three years there, it’s really progressively gotten worse. Kind of like, not in [an] elitist situation, but just people that have gone very into their roles, I would say,” Eddinger said. “And at times it feels like we need a fresh new perspective so that we can remember to bring new students into Student Government to remember that the student body needs our help instead of just focusing on statutes and rewriting statutes every single two weeks.”

In an email to Technician, Eddinger also stated that his decision came to a head when Rivas expressed discontent with Eddinger’s vote against a fee increase for Student Media.

“I wasn’t too close with him until, as a student senator, I voted no on the increase to the Media Budget earlier in the fall,” Eddinger wrote. “When Alex told me how he was disappointed in my decision and advocated for why the media deserves its funding I knew I found someone worthy to be my running mate. That passion for advocacy is exactly what I was looking for.”

Rivas, whose politics are more left-leaning, said that while his political views differ from Eddinger’s, those differences help them work better together. Eddinger agreed, saying they share a common goal.

“My philosophy is this: No matter if you’re blue or red, we should still work together. We all are part of the same Wolfpack. We all need to work together so that we can come together and truly make something remarkable,” Eddinger said. “And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

NC State students can vote in person in the lobby of Talley Student Union, the Engineering Building II breezeway and online on March 9 and 10.