Student Senate hosts pre-election debate, new officers chosen

While on campus, it’s vital for your voice to be heard and for members of student government to advocate for student needs. 

With that goal in mind, Student Senate announced new student body officers for the 2024-2025 academic year on Thursday. Sophomore political science and journalism major Adalia Yeung will lead the charge as student body president (SBP) next year.

In preparation for the voting that took place this week, the organization hosted a debate on Monday, which gave students an opportunity to voice any questions or concerns they had before casting their votes.

The debate started off with each candidate being asked questions by the moderator relating to issues on campus. Issues brought up ranged from course registration to the lack of trust students have with administration on campus. 

When answering these questions, each candidate got to share their stance, ideas and plans they have in place to address these issues.

“I’m really happy they changed a lot of questions up from last year,” Yeung said. “I got to hit a lot of the things that were very important to me.” 

Once the moderator finished asking questions, the floor opened to attendees to ask questions to each SBP candidate. Landon Williams, a junior political science major and SBP runner up, says he felt honored to participate.

“I think those questions are important to ask and important [for us] to answer,” Williams said. “I am very proud of those students for standing up and asking the questions that we as the student body need to ask.” 

Overall, attendees left feeling like their voices were heard by SBP candidates and they hope to have more people like themselves get involved. 

“Politics is happening whether or not you care about it,” junior philosophy and political science double major Mark Tangel said. “You are affected by it and if you want a say then you need to make your demands known.”

Among the new student body officers are Rodrigo Trujillo as speaker of the assembly, Lauren Henson as chief of staff and Sarrah Denton for director of administration.

Follow up information about Student Senate and the organization’s plans for the upcoming year can be found on the organization’s Instagram.