DeKALB – The Student Government Association held its elections debates from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in the Carl Sandburg Auditorium where about 100 students attended from various student organizations.
Certain candidates noted they have aligned themselves based on a ticket. This means the candidates on a particular ticket align themselves with each other and endorse those on the same ticket.
The ticket for “NIU United” features presidential candidate Ja’kobe Jones, vice presidential candidate James Innis and student trustee candidate Aidan O’Brien.
The ticket for “NIU Unity” features presidential candidate Alexia Musgraves, vice presidential candidate Khardell Phelps, treasurer candidate Ryan Kramer and student trustee candidate Jeremiah Johnson.
Voters can vote for any candidate they want, they do not have to vote for the whole ticket.
THE CANDIDATES:
PRESIDENT: ALEXIA MUSGRAVES AND JA’KOBE JONES
ALEXIA MUSGRAVES: a junior majoring in public health administration, currently holds the position of senator for the University-At-Large and holds the position of chairperson of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Musgraves is also running under the “NIU Unity” ticket.
JA’KOBE JONES: a sophomore math major, has not held an SGA position in the past, but attributes experiences such as his previous position as director of orientation for Black Male Initiative and his experience as current social chair for his fraternity Epsilon Omicron as his credentials. Jones is running for SGA president under the “NIU United” ticket.
VICE PRESIDENT: JAMES INNIS AND KHARDELL PHELPS
JAMES INNIS: a junior accountancy major, is the SGA’s current director of organizational development. Innis has been part of SGA for three years and held the positions of chief of staff and director of organizational development. Innis is running under the “NIU United” ticket.
KHARDELL PHELPS: a sophomore political science major, is the SGA’s current director of governmental affairs. Phelps is running under the “NIU Unity” ticket.
TREASURER: VENKATA MADABATTULA AND RYAN KRAMER
VENKATA MADABATTULA: a graduate student, who has not held a position with the SGA before. Madabattula held a treasurer position for four years at his past university. Madabattula is running independently.
RYAN KRAMER: a sophomore finance major, is the SGA’s current deputy treasurer. Kramer is running under the “NIU Unity” ticket.
STUDENT TRUSTEE: AIDAN O’BRIEN AND JEREMIAH JOHNSON
AIDAN O’BRIEN: a junior marketing major, is not currently on the SGA. O’Brien has held a position in the SGA previously under the college of business constituency. Currently, O’Brien is the president of both the Campus Activities Board and Sigma Nu fraternity. O’Brien is running under the “NIU United” ticket.
JEREMIAH JOHNSON: a senior sociology major, has not held a position on SGA. Johnson is the current president of Black Male Initiative. Johnson is running under the “NIU Unity” ticket.
The debates featured predetermined questions from the elections committee, questions from the candidates themselves and questions from the audience.
PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: ALEXIA MUSGRAVES VS JA’KOBE JONES
“WHAT IS THE PROBLEM YOU SEE FACING THE STUDENT BODY?”
MUSGRAVES: “A problem that I see facing within the student body is also the retention rate, that is a huge issue here, so you want to make sure that we’re all here for the same goal, and that’s to graduate,” Musgraves said.
“Another issue that I do see is student organizations addressing the funding issue, in which there should be new policies in place to make it easier for organizations to develop funding,” Musgraves said.
JONES: “The main problem I see facing the student body is retention,” Jones said. “Retention is the umbrella for everything else. In terms of student engagement, I believe that student engagement, the activities that we have on campus are not for all of the students.”
“I believe that the cost of living in DeKalb and not just DeKalb but the county as a whole is only going up,” Johnson said. “Like, I remember, I stayed in the dorms last semester, I stayed at Stevenson, and it was roughly around, like $6,000. I know, like, some of my friends who still stay at Stevenson who are able to move to apartments, and now the cost of living is above $7,000.”
“WHAT ARE THE PROJECTS YOU WANT TO WORK ON IF ELECTED?”
MUSGRAVES: “Personally, I will make sure that we are having a lot of events, governmental events, academic success events,” Musgraves said. “I do want to raise awareness to mental health, so that will be something that I want to target as events, as well as career developments. I’m huge on that. As well as hosting town hall meetings with alumni, as well coming here to speak to students.”
JONES: “I have two events that I would like to propose,” Jones said. “My first event is an event that would, like, teach organizations how to get funding from SGA. So it would essentially be an informational financial aid for organizations.”
“My second event that I would like to propose is called SGA Awareness Day,” Jones said. “I feel like a lot of people just don’t know what SGA is and don’t know what SGA stands for, so I would like to decorate not only the Holmes Student Center but dorms as well, so people will know what SGA stands for and the benefits of joining.”
“SGA HAS BEEN STRUGGLING, WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO IMPROVE THE SGA? AND WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?”
MUSGRAVES: “What I would do to improve SGA is making sure, as a high figure, that I am putting SGA first and responding to students and SGA members because I believe that if we are not holding ourselves accountable, doing our job correctly, that will reflect on directors not doing their jobs and that will lead to Senate and traditional and so on,” Musgraves said. “Something that I would do differently is really promoting diversity inclusion and making sure that there’s different faces in the senate that look like the students.”
JONES: “I believe that SGA has been struggling because people genuinely don’t know what SGA is and what SGA stands for,” Jones said.
“If elected, I believe that I will truly try and bridge the gap between every community, our diverse backgrounds,” Jones said. “I’ll go door to door to dorms, I will get to know everybody, I want everybody to know that this is the organization to join, this organization to be a part of and this is the organization to come to when you have problems.”
“WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO ENSURE STUDENTS KNOW ABOUT THE MANY RESOURCES HERE ON CAMPUS? AND HOW DO YOU PLAN TO MAKE YOURSELF AVAILABLE?”
MUSGRAVES: “I use my platforms,” Musgraves said. “I am always looking. I know pretty much a lot of resource centers and connect with the Huskie pantry, the food pantry, so really making sure that I, SGA, the members are getting involved,”
“Make posters, talking to students and encouraging them to come to senate meetings,” Musgraves said. “I mean we have announcements of really, really cool events. Talk about STEM week, we talked about the art gallery, there’s so much going on.”
JONES: “So first off, I want to be seen,” Jones said. “So I’ll be in the
Student Center as much as possible because I believe that if you see a face to an organization, you want to get to know more about the organization.”
“As president, I believe that I have to outsource to make sure that all our problems are heard, not just the problems that I’m used to hearing,” Jones said.
VICE PRESIDENT: KHARDELL PHELPS VS JAMES INNIS
“TELL ME ABOUT YOUR TOP THREE ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN YOUR CURRENT SGA ROLE?”
PHELPS: “I realized that we have no documentation of our own registering rates. That’s something I’m looking forward to getting into,” Phelps said. “And also the SGA director of government affairs reports back to the democracy challenge every single year. That’s also something that I’m working on right now, as well as the new event (awareness event) that I mentioned earlier.”
INNIS: “Myself and Deputy Speaker (Chris) English assumed responsibility of the vice president in the vacancy,” Innis said. “I said it’s stretched thin, but that’s a bit of a compliment for us. My predecessor in the role of director of organizational development wasn’t very around, wasn’t attending committee meetings and some of the backlog. I was able to absorb that, when I got into that role, I finally caught myself up to the end of last semester. Again that’s also part of those three organizations that have been approved so far.”
“WHAT ARE SOME PROJECTS YOU WANT TO WORK ON?”
PHELPS: “The first thing is more so when it comes to our outreach and our student involvement. I didn’t know that we have events by student volunteers, but doing more things that will get these leaders and student bodies out,” Phelps said. “I know one of the duties as vice president is communicating with the leaders and student organizations on campus. So having presidential roundtables and similar things that in order to, you know, know that the concerns of our community.”
INNIS: “Making the process easier for organizations to be founded and recognized by SGA,” Innis said. “That includes, obviously, we change the annual renewal annual funding received. It used to be an organization with SGA recognized the need to wait a year for they receive annual funding. Now, it’s just one semester. Along with that, and also a lower number of individuals needed to found a student organization.”
“There’s also a constitution template and a checklist, which is what I used to read in the constitutions,” Innis said. “I’d also like to set up a step-by-step walkthrough for students, much like many instructors and professors now in the classroom, just in case to direct causation development.”
“WHAT ARE THINGS YOU COULD IMPROVE UPON?”
PHELPS: “I think getting in our community, letting the students know who we are, what we do, and how can we help them,” Phelps said.
INNIS: “One, being there and being in a position so we’re not stretched too thin,” Innis said. “Number two is obviously the vice president is also the keeper and preserver of the constitution and bylaws and one of only a few individuals who is able to correct grammatical errors within the constitution and bylaws.”
TREASURER: VENKATA MADABATTULA VS RYAN KRAMER
“WHAT IS A PROBLEM YOU SEE FACING THE STUDENT BODY?”
MADABATTULA: “As I said previously, not a lot of students know about these organizations,” Madabattulla said.
KRAMER: “From a financial aspect, obviously the deficit that we’re currently in,” Kramer said. “We are in the red by quite a lot. I can’t tell you the exact number off hand, but I would like to see the number increase in any way I could.”
“WHAT DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE IMPROVED UPON AS TREASURER?”
MADABATTULA: “Maintaining the documents of the budget,” Madabattula said.
KRAMER: “More voices that can be heard on the Finance Committee,” Kramer said. “On top of that, I would also like to see if we can improve the ease, or how easy it is, to request for supplemental funding.”
STUDENT TRUSTEE: JEREMIAH JOHNSON VS AIDAN O’BRIEN
“WHAT WILL YOU DO TO COLLABORATE WITH THE ADMINISTRATION TO ADVOCATE FOR ALL STUDENTS?”
JOHNSON: “I plan to stay engaged and up to date on the student body through critical communication channels such as surveys, focus groups and meeting with student organizations,” Johnson said.
“I would like to collaborate closely with the university administration and stakeholders to increase balance, short term student needs with the institution long term goals for fostering an open dialogue and collaboration,” Johnson said.
O’BRIEN: “I believe I would like to attend every single set of meetings after a board trustees meeting and report my findings, and also any resolutions that the senate passes, take them to the Board of Trustees,” O’Brien said. “The legislative session is voted on by the student body, a. And so whatever they pass as a resolution means that’s what the student body is feeling.”
“I’d also like to kind of bridge that gap, that gap by having like ‘meet the trustee’ meetings once a month. That’s something that hasn’t been done,” O’Brien said. “I’m a very open person. Over the past few years, I worked in Campus Activities Board, so I spent about 10 to 20 hours a week at the HSC. I’m comfortable with that. So I’ll be open and I’ll be available for students to speak to.”
“WHAT IS THE PROBLEM YOU SEE FACING THE STUDENT BODY?”
JOHNSON: “The accessibility and support services for underrepresented and marginalized students, and also just more mental health services for our students,” Johnson said.
O’BRIEN: “One major issue is that NIU has done a great job of targeting underserved communities and first generation students and bringing them into this university,” O’Brien said. “However, NIU can fall short with the resources that we provide them for success. We need to provide resources for our students so that they have a successful academic and college career throughout NIU and then prepare them for life after college.”
“WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROJECTS YOU WANT TO WORK ON?”
JOHNSON: “I want to increase transparency between the student government and student body,” Johnson said.
“Additionally, I want to try to improve communication channels by actively soliciting feedback, respond to inquiries properly and ensure that the student concerns are addressed in a timely manner,” Johnson said.
“I want to open up more scholarship opportunities, better, just better spaces for students to actually sit, sit down and actually try to do their work properly,” Johnson said.
O’BRIEN: “The student activity fee is the fee that goes directly to SGA and funds our student organizations,” O’Brien said. “I believe if we want to tackle enrollment and retention issues at this university, we should focus on providing more funding for student organizations.”
“So the fact that they increase that fee (student fees) and did not allocate any to the student activity fee, I think is a glaring issue and moving forward when they go through the review process with the board and President Freemen, I would like that to be one of my goals is to increase that student activity fee,” O’Brien said.
