SGA Election Endorsements

Every year, after reviewing the platforms and conducting interviews of each candidate running for SGA Executive Board, The News-Letter Editorial Board determines which candidates to endorse. The Editorial Board endorses the candidates that best suit the position, provide the most relevant experience and demonstrate a plan for successfully enacting meaningful improvement. This year, there are two groups running as tickets and one independent candidate running for treasurer, junior Maxwell Dickey. One tickets is composed of junior Janice Bonsu (president), sophomore Kyra Toomre (vice president), junior Will Szymanski (treasurer) and freshman Adelaide Morphette (secretary). The other ticket consists of juniors Justin Whalley (president), Jake Rogers (vice president), Mahzi Malcolm (treasurer) and freshman Ope Olukorede (secretary).

This year, the Editorial Board strongly endorses Bonsu’s entire ticket. They not only have the experience necessary to run SGA with continuity and sound judgment — Bonsu and Toomre are both currently on the Executive Board — but the compatibility to function as a cohesive and efficient team with complementary strengths. From their obvious dedication to the SGA and the student body, to their demonstrated work ethic, to their nuanced, detailed and well-articulated platform, the candidates of the Bonsu ticket are clearly on the same page. They share a vision for how the SGA should function, and they will be able to work very well together in pursuit of those objectives.

In contrast, with the noteworthy exception of a few notable ideas, Whalley’s platform consists mostly of vague and empty rhetoric against the SGA itself. Though the Editorial Board agrees that there are many ways in which the SGA can improve, it is not enough to just run as a group of outsiders. The Whalley ticket has not put forth many specific proposals that amount to meaningful reform, nor do they have a clear sense of how to go about implementing those few proposals they have. Additionally, some members of Whalley’s ticket seem like nothing more than loose acquaintances, and as a group, they lack the rapport that enables an effective governing coalition. If Whalley’s ticket is elected, the Editorial Board is concerned that it will be in over its head.

The Board sees the opposite problem with Dickey. He is very well aware of how SGA works, but his ideas are far too focused on SGA efficiency rather than the needs of students themselves, and we do not see his ideas meshing well with either ticket’s goals.

All three tickets mentioned funding for advocacy and awareness groups, which is an issue that the Editorial Board urges the winners of this election to address.

SGA Executive President

The role of the president is to lead the Executive Board and act as a liaison between the student body and the administration. Of the two candidates, Janice Bonsu is by far the most qualified. Currently the vice president of the SGA Executive Board, she has spent the year learning everything she can about the way student government works and focusing on the needs of the student body. Along with her vice presidential duties of running SGA meetings, she has focused on increasing the security radius off campus and strengthening the SGA’s relationship with the administration.

Contrary to Justin Whalley’s claims that the Bonsu ticket’s experience makes them out-of-touch with the student body, we feel that Bonsu’s experience is an invaluable advantage for her candidacy. Bonsu is the first to admit that when she became vice president last year, she had to spend the entire summer learning about what the job entailed. This was even after spending time as a Class Senator, which Whalley has not done. When presented with Whalley’s accusations, Bonsu stressed the importance of knowing the ins and outs of every facet of SGA workings. “We have the connections and the trust of so many people throughout the University to get things done this year,” she said. “Experience is not something to shy away from.”

Whalley lacks the experience, connections and personal relationships that Bonsu can bring to the table. Unlike Bonsu, Whalley is not well-versed enough in his own ideas to articulate or even remember them without the aid of notes to read from. In fact, over-reliance on prepared remarks was a troubling feature of our conversation with him. He appears to lack the ability to lead charismatically or to communicate eloquently with students and other SGA members. Though he presented several good ideas, such as creating more dining plan options for students, extending the hours that Nolan’s is open and enlisting the aid of fraternities in the effort to enhance school spirit, he did not seem to know how exactly he would go about implementing these plans once elected. The SGA President must know how every aspect of the SGA process works, and Whalley lacks this knowledge.

Despite Bonsu’s strengths, the Editorial Board was concerned when she said, in response to a question regarding Maxwell Dickey’s proposal that students should be able to propose petitions for change directly, that students have enough say in government just by voting for SGA candidates every year. We encourage Bonsu to offer students additional ways to influence student government in between election periods.

SGA Vice President

The main role of the vice president is to objectively run Senate meetings and to set the agenda. Kyra Toomre is well-acquainted with the format of these meetings, as she is currently the SGA Secretary. This year, she spearheaded multiple initiatives to increase school spirit. Most prominently, she planned the school’s first Commemoration Ball, which was successful because she was able to work with the administration to procure funding. Over 400 students attended the event. She is also committed toward creating an SGA mentorship program that will ease new members’ transitions into the group, as she knows how hard it is to enter student government without any experience or assistance.

Though Jake Rogers is also committed to promoting school spirit and is a member of a student athletics advisory commission and the varsity baseball team, he does not have the experience necessary to run SGA meetings. Despite some decent ideas about increasing SGA transparency, it simply does not make sense for him to be in charge of SGA meetings when he has never been a member of SGA.

SGA Treasurer

The SGA Treasurer is responsible for managing the budget and is the SGA’s Student Activities Commission (SAC) representative. Though Will Szymanski has not previously been on SGA, he has managed the Foreign Affairs Symposium’s budget and has the best leadership and communication skills out of all of the candidates for Treasurer. He is capable of seeing the bigger picture when it comes to student group funding, and he is committed to allocating funding through a student-based approach. This is in stark contrast to Maxwell Dickey’s proposal, which advocates for a rubric-based funding system that would allocate funds partially based on student group size and event attendance. Dickey also proposed a Club Association comprised of one member of every student group, which in theory is a good way to assess the needs of groups, but it would be far too large and diversified to actually prove effective. Though Dickey is a highly qualified candidate with the most developed ideas of the three, the Editorial Board strongly believes that not only are these ideas unfair to smaller and less popular student groups, but they do not fit in with the platforms of either ticket.

Mahzi Malcolm is currently an SGA Senator, and he was composed and professional in our interview. His best idea is an amnesty program for students who call for medical help regarding alcohol or drug-related emergencies. Unfortunately, his knowledge of the various group funding proposals advocated by Dickey and Symanski — a subject far more integral to his role as treasurer — was subpar.

SGA Secretary

The secretary’s main role is to communicate the student body’s ideas to the SGA, manage its website and write the meeting minutes. Both candidates for SGA Secretary have experience as Freshman Class Senators and presented sound policy ideas. Both emphasized school spirit, transparency and uploading the meeting minutes as quickly as possible. Our endorsement of Adelaide Morphette relies primarily on two factors.

Firstly and less important is the simple fact that Morphette showed up for our interview, whereas Ope Olukorede missed it to study for a test. It is possible that this is simply a matter of bad timing that, on another week, might have occurred in reverse. But it is also possible it represents a difference in willingness or ability to prioritize SGA ahead of academics. The secretary will have a far larger weekly commitment than our one-hour interview, and we cannot have any doubt that the SGA Executive Board members place SGA first.

The second and more important reason we endorse Morphette is that we feel she fits seamlessly into the carefully constructed group dynamic that makes the Bonsu ticket such a formidable unit. On the other hand, Olukorede’s team struggled to name any of her previous accomplishments or policy ideas. We have no reason to doubt Olukorede’s capabilities, but Morphette’s team has a clear and obvious trust in her, and through her accomplishments on the SGA, including the recent acquirement of a Blue Jay Shuttle route to Hampden, she has proven herself to her ticket and to the student body.