The spring 2018 Student Government Association elections are nearly upon us. Campaigning for Executive Elections opens this week, and voting is set for Feb 21 through Feb 23. The Executive Presidents Ticket, often called “the Big Three Ticket”, includes this year’s candidates for Student Body President, VP of Policy and Advocacy, and VP of Social Affairs.
These offices are currently held by Student Body President Francesca Galbato ’18, VP of Policy and Advocacy Mark Cristaldi ’18, and VP of Social Affairs Calla Kostelnik ’18.
“It is wonderful to see so many people passionate not only about SGA, but Loyola as a whole. The role of Student Body President is a huge undertaking, but it is a great opportunity to be a part of something larger than yourself,” says current President Francesca Galbato.
“My advice to the future SBP is to always make yourself available and don’t be afraid to speak up about what you believe is best for students.”
With the incumbents graduating, all three offices are open to completely new candidates, and three different tickets have been registered to fill the positions. “This will be one of the most contested and campaigned SGA elections since I arrived as a freshman,” Senior Class President Nicholas Palazzolo, ’18, said.
The Greyhound interviewed Daysi Perez, candidate for Student Body President, to get to knowher, hear her platform, and give her the opportunity to show what makes her ticket the best fit for SGA Executive Leadership.
Daysi Perez
“Transparency. Accountability. Advocacy”
Running Mates: JJ Good, ’19, candidate for VP of Policy and Advocacy, and Hugh Herlin, ’19, candidate for VP of Social Affairs
Where are you from and what’s your major?
Daysi Perez: I’m from Astoria, New York. I’m majoring in Communication, specializing in Advertising and Digital Media, and minoring in Spanish.
What Does Being a Greyhound mean to you?
DP: It’s a lot of community and inclusivity. And that’s a big thing I like to bring up especially when I’m giving tours. Parents always ask me ‘what’s your favorite thing about Loyola’ and ‘what does it mean for you to be here.’ It’s really the sense of community, the fact that you can have such an easy conversation with someone you just met that says a lot about the students that come here. It’s picking each other up, and building each other up, instead of tearing each other down; that’s something you don’t see here at all.
What’s your leadership experience?
DP: I’ve been with SGA since my first year, I’ve been on the student assemblies and I’m on the Junior Assembly now. I love being able to represent my class, it’s great and I’ve met a lot of people through it. It’s a really great feeling when you put on an event and people come and give you good feedback. It’s nice to see that people care about what you’re doing and trust you enough to go up to you and say they want to see an event along certain lines. I’m also an evergreen on campus and I love being able to work with first years. I really like seeing the progress of the first years and having students from my Messina class come up to me and tell me what they’re up to. I work for admissions too, and I love it when I see people who apply and go through tours and then actually become students. I loved being able to initiate people into the Loyola community. I love talking to families and students about why I love Loyola and why they should to. It’s clearly not been a secret that our class numbers haven’t been as big as they used to be. But even making a difference in that, I just want. I also work with CCSJ and I’m prepping everything to lead an immersion trip in May which is exciting.
What made you decide to run?
DP: It was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to run. My first year at SGA I would always look up to Moira Pannepacker (’16 and SBP at the time) and just seeing how put together her life was and how much of a change she was making. Little first year me was like ‘I want to be like this’. The guys I’m running with, JJ and Hugh, I’ve known since my first year and we’ve always talked about it. They’re like my brothers, so we’re always messing around, but we were serious about this. It was a good team effort, and it’s so great because we’re totally fine with being 100% honest with each other and we make a good partnership so I’m really excited about that. Coming back from abroad, I wasn’t involved in as many clubs there, and it made me realize how much I loved being involved in SGA. I also heard about things that were going on around campus that just need some work, like working with administrators.
What would be your top priority as Student Body President?
DP: One thing within SGA is definitely creating more transparency, between us and the students and things we hear from administrators, being transparent with what we have going on. We really want to work on lowering parking prices, especially for students who have to park at the FAC. You shouldn’t have to pay an obscene amount of money if you still have to walk that far for your own car. We also really want to work with academic advising and see if we can extend the add drop period that we have. I feel like one week is definitely not enough, you shouldn’t be expected to know if the class is going to work for you or not in the span of one week. If we do get the position I want to be sure that there’s a lot of transparency going on. I want to make sure that the guys and I leave Loyola better off than when we first came in. I love Loyola, but I feel like the administration needs to be more proactive and not reactive. Like when there are get-togethers in the quad, like after the presidential election for example. We need to do a better job of handling things before they happen. We want to care about what’s going on rather than just waiting for someone to have a bad reaction.
How can you best represent all Greyhounds?
DP: It’s just really getting to know everyone. And you obviously can’t know everyone on campus, but going to different events, different clubs, even things you normally wouldn’t see yourself going to, that’s where you meet and where you hear what’s going on and what people want changed. Even with little things like Loyola Palooza, getting student input and things like that. Just like with add/drop, I heard it from other people having issues. It’s about getting to know them, not at just surface level, but having genuine conversations with people even if it’s just 5 minutes. That’s what I hope to do.
Can you explain your campaign slogan?
DP: Our three pillars are transparency accountability, and advocacy. We want to keep that message consistent and make it clear to students that that is our message, even if we hopefully win.
Final words for potential voters?
DP: It’s not even “vote for me” it’s just, “vote”. If you want to see a change you should get educated and get informed on who’s running, what’s there campaign platform, even just emailing us adding us on Facebook and messaging us, something like that. I just want people to vote in general and have a fun election. Campaign week is gonna be hard. But I’m excited, it’ll definitely take all the energy out of me, but I’ve been waiting for it for so long. We want to address those complaints. So if we do win, just keep complaining and well work for it and well work towards fixing it!
Campaigning for the Executive Elections began Monday, with polls opening this Wednesday and closing on Friday, when the winners are expected to be announced by current SGA leadership.
The Greyhound encourages all students to hear what all of the candidates have to say and most importantly vote.
Student Body President Francesca Galbato leaves the candidates with final words wishing “all the candidates the best of luck! All of them are capable of making an impact on Loyola, no matter their title.”
Be sure to read about this year’s other candidates for Student Body President on The Greyhound.
