The students at Newman University may have noticed an increase in fun posters around campus. That’s because the Student Government Association (SGA) elections are nearing and campaigning has begun.
There are two sets of candidates running for SGA president and vice president for the 2019-20 academic year — Thao Nguyen is running for president with Emily Larkin as his running mate, and Jordan Ojile heads the other ticket with Jonathan Liu running alongside him.
Both parties said campaigning has been fun, has brought out their creative side and has helped them meet and learn about many students.
Ojile and Liu are using wheels to get to know some of their fellow students by offering rides via golf cart to class, the parking lot or anywhere they want to go on campus
“During the transportation,” explained Ojile, “we let students know we want to work with them and it allows us time to talk to them, ask them about their day, get on their page and find out what they want from their executive board. It’s a relaxed setting for them.”
Liu added that “good eats” are also a great way to connect with students. He said they are adding baked goods to their transportation services for the second week of campaigning.
Nguyen and Larkin haven’t shied away from passing out yummy treats, either.
“We’ve done a significant amount of baking,” said Nyugen. “We handed out 300 individually packaged cookies, made 600 O
Larkin added all that baking and preparing has given them a chance to brainstorm for new poster and other campaigning ideas.
She said the competitive, but fun, campaigning has brought out “the best of each other, and it’s fun to be challenged. There is a mutual respect between us and we’re all friends outside the campaign.”
Both candidates have used posters in their campaigning and said they enjoy getting creative with that side of it.
But at the end of the day, they all agreed that it’s important to have an active campaign, one in which the student body sees a friendly competition.
Larkin said, “We are all already involved in SGA on the legislation so we’ve still got a job to do. It makes us work harder — I’m glad we’re not unopposed because we’re working harder to make a better SGA experience for the student body.”
Ojile added, “We have two excellent tickets running, they can both offer a lot to the community. This campaign has taught me that competition isn’t bad and it shows the Newman community that they have student leaders on campus who all want the best for the students.”
