During their latest meeting, the Central Michigan University Student Government Association introduced the candidates for this year’s election. Candidates presented the reason they are running and what they hope to accomplish if selected.

Here are the candidates for the 25-26 academic year:

President & Vice President
- Senior Carolina Hernandez Ruiz (President) / Junior Aashka Barot (Vice President)
- Sophomore Akua Acheampong (President) / Sophomore Kathryn House (Vice President)
Treasurer
- Junior Pratham Agarwal
- Junior Lauren Bonomo
- Graduate Vaishnavi Manikonda
- Junior Carnell Poindexter
Associate Justice
- Junior Akshaya Baitinti
- Graduate Jose Medina

Hernandez Ruiz/Barot: Continuing the mission for change at CMU

President Hernandez Ruiz and Vice President Barot are running for a second term. After listing a number of initiatives created and implemented during their leadership, the two said they hope to continue their mission for change at CMU.

“We want to continue to implement such meaningful changes on campus,” Barot told SGA members.

Over the past year, they have created many initiatives such as:

Institutionalized SGA’s Scholarship Fair
Implemented DEI training for SGA Cabinet members
Partnered with administrators to help students receive food over holiday breaks
Held events such as a Q&A with Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan
Planning for CMU’s second TEDx event

Barot told SGA members that they are currently working with the university’s Academic Senate to extend withdrawal dates for classes and made an initiative to create more public transportation opportunities for students.

In their mission statement, the candidates said they will work to “empower students, amplify their voices, and drive positive, lasting change within our university community” if selected.

They selected Agarwal, SGA’s Governmental Affairs Committee Chair, as their Treasurer.

“Since I’ve seen a lot of change and because of our vision, that why I’ve decided to run together,” Agarwal said. “Because I’ve been in the cabinet, I have seen a lot of intricacies of how the government works and how the resources are allocated. So with this experience, I know how the treasury works.”

Acheampong/House: Strengthening student engagement and sustainability for SGA

Serving as Treasurer for SGA over the past year, Acheampong is running for SGA President with House, who is SGA’s Sustainability Committee Chair, on the promise of building more opportunities for students to know more about the association and strengthen sustainability within SGA and its budget.

“We want to create an efficient and more improved SGA through collective action,” Acheampong said. “We want to address any issues on campus through sustainable funding. Beyond people graduating, we want things to last.”

With Poindexter as their pick for Treasurer and Medina as Associate Justice, the four hope to implement changes in a number of initiatives if selected. Some of these initiative ideas are:

Create training for new cabinet members
Host book drives for students to donate old textbooks
Increase awareness about the Student Budget Allocation Committee
Host meetings with Executive Boards of Registered Student Organizations and create more relationships with external partners
Hold “more smooth and time efficient” SGA meetings

According to their website, the candidates are campaigning to build a “better future through collective action” and “address key issues, inspire change, and create an inclusive, sustainable, and prosperous campus community.”

Bonomo for Treasurer

After a brief introduction about herself and her experience as a transfer student, Bonomo said that it was difficult to transition into the university after spending two years in community college.

She said that if she were selected as SGA’s next Treasurer, she would ensure that SGA funding would support initiatives to build retention in student involvement around campus.

“We have our big events like Mainstage or football games, but there’s so many RSOs on campus that a lot of students don’t know about,” Bonomo said. “As treasurer, I plan to actively survey students to understand what they want to ensure that SGA funding is supporting initiatives that matter to them.”

She stated she worked as treasurer for her national honor society in high school and helped manage drives and fundraisers for projects.

Baitinti for Associate Justice

International student and computer science major Baitinti is running for Associate Justice and said she hopes to look into the health insurance student workers’ pay into and advocate for equal funds for RSOs.

“We international students pay hundreds of dollars each semester, yet many of them find it useless at the end of the semester,” Baitinti said. “I’ll also advocate for equal distribution of funds so that RSOs that rarely receive support get fair opportunities.”

She said also she hopes to create bylaws that help increase representation for minority groups on campus.

“If you’re looking for someone who will take the responsibility seriously and fight for real change, I would be really honored,” Baitinti said.

Next steps

Treasurer Candidate Manikonda was not present for the meeting.

Candidates will have from March 24 to March 28 to engage with students and campaign. The executive board candidates will debate on March 31 in the Bovee University Center Auditorium around 7:30 p.m. and voting will begin on April 7 at 8 a.m.

SGA Director of Elections Praise Oyimi said every student is connected to SGA and this is their opportunity to decide its future.

“Whoever you pick, whoever you are involved with will be the next association,” Oyimi said.

In other news

SGA's House of Reps. has introduced and passed its first piece of legislation and will move to the Senate next week. Speaker of the House Christian Dunn said the new initiative strives to create a campuswide policy for voting accessibility on Election Day. The draft will be presented and discussed by the Senate at their meeting on March 24.

SGA: Meet the Candidates

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