The #YouMatterNIU and #MovingForwardNIU are the tickets running for Student Association executive positions during the Tuesday and Wednesday elections. The candidates running on the #YouMatterNIU ticket all hold SA positions with two directors and two members of the executive and are running on a platform of transparency, advocacy, and interaction. #MovingForwardNIU candidates have held various positions in student organizations and has a platform focused on advocacy and student-campus involvement.

#YouMatterNIU

DeKALB — Khiree Cross, senior business management major, is running for the presidential position and has big plans for SA if elected.

Cross said he hopes to turn his ticket name into a campaign to give students a platform to speak out on the different social issues they face.

“They can show why their issue matters or show why they matter as a person,” Cross said. “#YouMatter campaign is basically a campaign that gives students a voice to leave no story left untold.”

Cross said the most important change his ticket hopes to initiate is transparency and student interaction because so many students don’t know what the SA can do for them. Cross also said establishing transparency is important, especially with student groups responding negatively to a student watch list.

“I want to bridge that gap,” Cross said. “So that’s another way that the #YouMatter campaign can bridge that gap is making personal interactions between student government and the students on campus.”

Cross said he oversees 328 student organizations as the current Student Association vice president and the position has given him the opportunity to step out of his comfort-zone and meet students of different backgrounds. Cross also said he wants to start going to different student organizations and show the students the Student Association is behind them.

“I think our experience will give us those resources and that network to be able to reach out to those students that we don’t know,” Cross said.

Cross said if elected he hopes to include the candidates from the #MovingForwardNIU ticket because he thinks they have strong standpoints that are important to the SA.

“Our experience secures your future,” Cross said.

Devin Halicki, junior business marketing major, said technology has made it easier for people to connect in a matter of seconds, but struggle to actually connect with one another. Halicki said he hopes to use the vice president position to usher in the change.

“With the #YouMatter campaign, a subevent from Khiree’s big #YouMatter event will also be me holding an event that’s all focused on you putting away your phone, developing personal connections with each other, stepping out of your comfort-zone like Khiree said because that’s how you truly grow,” Halicki said. “It’s getting to know the students here.”

Halicki said it’s of great importance for him to be able to give students the opportunities to feel connected because college is about building connections with others and he’s excited to be able to assist students in that respect.

“We’ve been here, we’ve been doing this, we develop those relationships, we’ve been meeting with student organizations,” Halicki said. “We’re all already in the Student Association, every single one of us, so that experience really helps us to be able to learn and know more about our campus, and foster those relationships, not have to start all over.”

Halicki said with the #YouMatter campaign they want students to feel like more than just a ZID and know they matter on campus and their voice matters.

“We’re here, we’re already making change, and we’re going to continue to make change for a better NIU and making sure that everyone knows they matter.” Halicki said.

Halicki said the SA is here for the students and whatever struggles they face, including mental illness, and here to help find solutions.

“At the end of the day if there’s an issue that faces our students,” Halicki said. “It is our job to represent them, any issue, every issue.”

Junior statistics major Nathan Hays is running for student trustee and said he intends to use the position to be the student voice as a member of the Board of Trustees. Hays also said he looks forward to playing a role in developing a vision for the university.

“Not everyone even knows what the Board of Trustees is, so if people understand that this is a group of people who is setting a vision for the university a lot of people would think that the students should have input on that,” Hays said.

Hays said one of the biggest concerns facing the university is the lack of funding for students and student organizations, and working as the treasurer has allowed him to explore options for organizations to receive equal opportunity for the available funding. Hays said as the current treasurer he has been able to support different student organizations and different communities through assisting them in getting funding through the SA.

“Having that experience as treasure, being able to take a very little amount of money and disperse it to a number of different organizations for a number of different causes,” Hays said. “I feel like having that experience will transition very well at the Board of Trustees level.”

Hays said both tickets are going to say they support all students and all organizations, but students need to look at what either ticket has already done and continue to do. Hays also said this year he has continued researching the student activity fee and finding ways for every student to have access to the money coming from the fee.

“Undocumented students currently can’t get public funding so they can’t have these opportunities for scholarships or different sources of funding,” Hays said. “But with the student activity fee being distributed to potentially the NIU Foundation, that is a way around it.”

Essence Coleman, junior business marketing major, is running for treasurer and said she looks forward to aiding students and student organizations through her position if elected. Coleman also said she wants to get SA’s name out to the students so they can understand the available opportunities SA can provide.

Coleman said being director of Student Life for the SA has given her the ability to understand the stress of event planning for student organizations.

“Jumping up to the treasurer position, I’ll be able to be on the same level as [the students] when they come to me and might need that extra funding for an event that they want to put on that might help them get their name out there,” Coleman said. “So I’ll be able to level the playing field.”

Coleman said if elected she looks forward to working with different student organizations and making them comfortable in working with financial services.

“In my current position I work with soley students, and putting on events for the students,” Coleman said. “I don’t get to work with organizations entirely, so this position will allow me to be able to work more directly with student organizations and help them out more.”

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#MovingForwardNIU

DeKALB — Sophomore journalism major Victor Owoeye wants to apply his passion for being a leader to the position of Student Association President.

Owoeye said he is running for SA president as part of Moving Forward NIU because it’s a chance for him to combine two of his passions: leadership and advocacy.

“I’m running because this is a passion of mine, leadership,” Owoeye said. “And also advocacy and standing up for people. I feel like that is kind of SA’s job, to be that voice for students.”

Owoeye has held a few leadership positions on campus as he is currently the vice president of the Black Student Union, has served in the SA as a senator and as a chair member of the Student Advisory Board.

Owoeye said the Senate has an important job that often goes unnoticed by the student body.

“I feel like the Senate is a very strong tool that most students don’t know the value of,” Owoeye said. “Having the privilege to be a senator this past semester, I saw how much the Senate can do for the campus.”

Owoeye said his ticket has been running on the basis of making SA more transparent and available to students.

Junior political science Sandra Puebla is running alongside Owoeye as the ticket’s vice presidential nominee.

Puebla said she has heard the issues that students have at NIU and would like to use her potential executive position on SA to make change possible.

“In my time here at NIU, I’ve noticed there is a lot of things students want and ask for that the Student Association never really provides,” Puebla said. “I want to change that.”

Puebla is currently the philanthropy chair of Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority Inc., a national organization that raises funds for organizations that cater to women’s needs. Puebla has previously set up fundraising events for Dream Action NIU and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The Moving Forward NIU ticket as a whole is pushing students to become more involved with issues, and that includes voting. Puebla said she understands the importance democracy plays in SA and how much of that also relies on students.

“I like how it’s structured,” Puebla said. “That being said, in order for democracy to work in any situation…you need people to vote. We have nearly 19,000 students. If we’re happy when 1,000 students vote, that’s not okay.”

Graduate student Melanie Sandoval said she is trying to put her experience in the DeKalb area to use by running as the ticket’s student trustee.

Sandoval said she thinks an important part of creating the change Moving Forward NIU wants to achieve is getting out and meeting students face-to-face to learn about individual struggles.

“As student leaders, we are supposed to represent our campus,” Sandoval said. “It’s important to put a face to a name. You make it more relatable. You make it more comfortable.”

Sandoval spent a lot of her time as an undergraduate working with the LatinX community at the Latino Resource Center and as a director of an after-school program for LatinX students at DeKalb High School. Sandoval also did one-on-one literacy tutoring with young bilingual ESL students through the Jerry L. Johns Literacy Clinic, a College of Education-ran reading support center for students in grades K-12.

Sandoval said as trustee, she would advocate for students’ safety on and off campus.

“As student leaders, we need to be advocating for our students,” Sandoval said. “What is our institution doing to ensure we are being safe?”

Junior Spanish major Braden Astorga-Rollins wants to showcase the resources SA has to offer by running for Moving Forward NIU’s Treasurer.

Astorga-Rollins said SA is just one of many groups on campus capable of making legislative changes but thinks it has a huge influence on students and legislators in terms of where to direct resources.

“I know there are a lot of resources the Senate has to offer,” Astorga-Rollins said. “They have a lot of opportunities to put resources where it counts and to advocate for students on every level.”

Astorga-Rollins knows firsthand about what the Senate can do for the university, as he is a current senator who helped make changes that allowed undocumented students to run for Senate. Astorga-Rollins is also the chair of the University Services Oversight committee, which tries to direct how to improve service buildings for students, and co-vice president of Dream Action NIU.

Astorga-Rollins knows from talking to students during this campaign that they don’t fully understand how important SA is and how it can help the student body, which is something he wants to see change.

“One of the most exciting things for me is having a student come into my office and say ‘I don’t like the way you are doing this,’” Astorga-Rollins said. “That means that I have reached out enough so people know who to talk to.”