On Monday, March 23, the Committee of Student Elections (CSE) held an Executive Board Debate between the candidates running for the Student Government Association’s (SGA) Executive positions, including Student Body President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Chair of Programming. The online panel allowed the candidates to discuss their positions and opened them to questions from the audience. All of the candidates’ complete platforms can be found here.
President
This election features four presidential candidates: sophomore Jason Yu, junior Omotara Tiamiyu, freshman Seán Durkis-Dervogne and freshman Wajiha Khan. Yu is currently the Sophomore Class President, promising to enhance student life by negotiating 25% discounts on group orders at the Bloomberg Student Center (BSC), lowering prices at Mudd and Brody Learning Commons’ Daily Grind cafes, establishing free menstrual products at the Hopkins Food Pantry and adding ice machines to the Recreation Center. As President, Yu promises to increase transparency for students, including updating students via email on SGA meetings, posting on Instagram weekly and facilitating meetings with students and administration for direct contact.
“One thing we will promise is – any email sent to any one of us within SGA will get replied to within one-two business days. We will prioritize your concerns; at the end of the day, we want to serve you, address your concerns, and we want to be there for you,” Yu stated.
Yu is currently working with A Place to Talk to promote mental health and provide free goodies to students, including hot cocoa, tea and face masks. Yu is also looking to implement nap and sleep classes with Mental Health Services to improve sleep health. His initiatives seek to maximize face-to-face interaction with the student body.
When the candidates were directed about maintaining accountability for SGA officials, Tiamiyu expressed frustration with the omission of minutes on SGA’s website. Tiamiyu expressed that only one person, the Director of Communications, is responsible for posting minutes and meeting data, which is a responsibility that Tiamiyu argues should be delegated to a larger team. Current committees also don’t have attendance and meeting minutes posted on their website.
“We need to have more clear definitions of responsibilities of communication in SGA and we need to have individuals we can hold accountable. [...] I’ve worked extremely hard in trying to fix the website, and I’ve worked outside my role as vice president to even go on and edit the website to add missing information,” Tiamiyu shared. “Transparency will be paramount for me. We need to hit the ground running on issues like this and not waste time transitioning between administrations.”
Tiamiyu is the current SGA Vice President, having served as Class Senator and Student Services Committee Head in the past. Tiamiyu runs on a five-point “Blueprint” platform, including initiatives to improve transportation, dining, academic support, student services and mental health services (details found here). Specifically, Tiamiyu seeks to work on projects like Wellness Days initiatives and shuttle routes to Towson and Fells Point.
When asked about responses to rejection, Tiamiyu explained that the reality of being on SGA means that many opportunities will be shut down by the administration, but she believes student-administration relations are important to develop.
“I’ve had instances, where ideas that I’ve had that have been brought up to our SGA administration directly have been shot down, but in instances like that, I didn’t stop talking about them. I actually went on to bring them up with higher administrators in the Board of Trustees meeting,” Tiamiyu said.
Durkis-Dervogne disagreed with this, believing that advisors have an important role and their considerations should be taken seriously by SGA officials.
“All my initiatives are based on the minimal amount of meetings possible. We use these advisors as the resource they are, but we take initiative. We don’t ask people in meetings to do things for us. We do the things for SGA. We as the SGA will act, not the admin acting on our behalf. I think that’s what the problem comes down to with the admin not being able to do things quickly,” Durkis-Dervogne argued.
Durkis-Dervogne is the senator who passed the Course Transparency Act, which depicts grade distributions (particularly the percentage of students who scored below a B) for all courses. Durkis-Dervogne advocates primarily for student-led initiatives requiring minimal administrative meetings, sharing how he sends a personal newsletter to 100+ students on SGA updates. Durkis-Dervogne holds his own office hours and a website about his work as senator. Durkis-Dervogne seeks to propose syllabi publishing earlier, coordinating midterm dates between professors and clarifying construction deadlines.
Khan was absent from the debate, so her responses were read out by CSE representatives. Khan’s platform seeks to make SGA more approachable and connected to student experiences, aiming to improve communication and support well-being.
Vice President
Junior Jazzlyn Fernandez and sophomore Sumire Sumi are running for Vice President. Sumi is a current SGA secretary, who has managed the SGA attendance via iClicker, created a Google Drive featuring SGA information, improved SGA social media presence and created a verification form for updating senator information on the website.
Fernandez is the Chair of the Committee of Social Affairs and has authored numerous action items bills and required deadlines for initiatives to increase SGA’s ability to maintain promises. For example, Fernandez wanted to survey students in the fall semester but had to wait for administrative approval. Instead of continuing to wait in the spring, Fernandez pushed forward in an action items bill with a specific authorization date; the survey was able to pass, obtaining 350 responses.
“It takes a lot of perseverance to not take no’s as a shutdown, but a redirection.” Fernandez continued, “If students have concerns they want to raise, SGA needs to do everything in their power to make sure it’s heard.”
Fernandez also seeks to implement a town hall for students regarding ICE and immigration concerns.
Secretary
Freshman Honora Muratori, current member of the Finance and Health, Safety and Sustainability Committees, is running for Secretary. Muratori proposes to increase SGA communication with student organization leaders as a part of a campaign to enhance transparency regarding funding and student policy. Muratori also seeks to address the University community’s relationship with Baltimore through historical education guiding future actions
Treasurer
Junior Amy Xu is running for Treasurer, currently conducting a survey among RSO treasurers to improve funding transparency. Xu also hopes to revise guidelines document with data-driven financial caps, implementing a financial liaison program assigning senators to student groups. Xu is currently the Chair of the Finance Committee.
Chair of Programming
Junior Grace Guan is running for the Chair of Programming, currently acting as a member of the Class Programming Council for two years. Guan has worked on implementing the HopFox Plushie Hunt, Juniors’ Jay Gatsby Gala, the Battle of the Classes and the Return to Nevermore Haunt. Guan seeks to expand SGA’s subsidies of daytime tabling events and implement a school ski trip to Liberty Mountain and create a “Month of Love” in February with reality-TV inspired challenges.
Tickets
Yu is running on a ticket with Fernandez, Muratori, and Xu. Tiamiyu is running on a ticket with Sumi.
Voting
Form-based voting will begin on Monday, March 30th at 12:00 PM and close Tuesday, March 31 at 5:00 PM. Students can vote in-person in BSC 404 from 2:00 to 5:00 PM on Tuesday.
