Behind the Campaigns: Get to know the 2022-23 SGA Candidates

Every year, students at SEMO vote on who will represent them as Student Government Association (SGA) president, vice president and treasurer. This year, two campaigns are running with a total of six candidates for three available positions.

The two campaigns, Ignite Innovation and the SEMO Experience, have met with student groups, faculty and other organizations on campus to help them figure out, “What is concerning students?”

Voting takes place online April 6 and 7. A QR code will be posted on SGA’s social media accounts to direct students to the voting form. The results of the election will be announced at the third floor pit of the University Center at Noon April 8.

Ignite Innovation

Junior finance major Joel Philpott, junior elementary education major Natalie Augustyn and junior marketing management major Heather Hoffman are running together under the slogan, “Real Students. Real Issues. Real Solutions.”

Philpott, Augustyn and Hoffman are running for president, vice president and treasurer, respectively. Each student has served as an SGA senator. For the 2021-22 term, Philpott serves as university affairs committee chair, Augustyn serves as the senior senator for the College of Education, Health and Human Studies, and Hoffman serves as a senator for the Harrison College of Business and Computing.

Ignite Innovation has six initiatives they’re running on: academic success, student success, funding transparency, diversity and inclusion, campus improvement, and senate improvement. The campaign built these initiatives by speaking with campus organizations and students.

“The most important [part] is actually talking to students like we did and seeing what they actually want to see change,” Hoffman said. “Because if you are an advocate, if you’re serving as a voice for the students, then you have to actually know what they think.”

Some of the key points from these initiatives include raising the minimum wage for student workers, transparency in funding, building connectivity between regional campuses as well as the River Campus, and adding non-voting positions to SGA.

“Yes, we say these things, but we want our initiatives to actually follow through, and it’s something we’re stressing,” Augustyn said. “A lot of times, we see in campaigns things being said or promised or things that want to be done, and it just kind of falls off, and that’s why we decided to run, because we don’t want these things to fall off.”

The trio chose not to pre-select their cabinet, because they said they wanted to give students the opportunity to apply for these positions, while also picking a diverse cabinet of students.

“I want people on my exec board that I don’t even know right now,” Philpott said. “If I just pick from people I know right now, how am I getting real representation? How am I going to hear something that I’ve never heard before about the student experience?”

The SEMO Experience

Senior secondary and social studies education and political science major Luke Collins is the candidate for president on “The SEMO Experience” ticket. Collins has been a member of SGA for three years and currently serves as SGA parliamentarian and as a member of the University’s Budget Review Committee.

Junior criminal justice major Sophie Machen is The SEMO Experience candidate for vice president. Machen has been a member of SGA for three years and currently serves as SGA treasurer. Machen said since she and Collins started in SGA together, they’ve talked about running for these officer positions.

“Whenever Luke and I were freshmen, we always talked about [running together],” Machen said. “I have always loved the thought of vice president, because they are the president of Senate, and I think Senate relations is incredibly important. It’s not perfect, and it never will be, but there’s always room for improvement.”

Sophomore business administration major Tyrell Gilwater is running for treasurer. Gilwater hasn’t served as a member of SGA. He said senator positions for the Harrison College of Business are very competitive, but he’s worked as treasurer for Student Activities Council (SAC) and currently serves as president.

“I was the first-ever treasurer for SAC, so it was really a lot of building up from the groundworks and setting my kind of principles,” Gilwater said. “Now, since [I would be] joining an already-established position, I feel like it would be only easier for me and putting on my ideals for innovating and making it run even more efficiently.”

The SEMO Experience focuses on safety, transparency and the student experience. They have met with campus organizations and students to help build their platforms and their initiatives.

The SEMO Experience has pre-picked their cabinet and started to team build. Other executive positions make up SGA’s cabinet including secretary, chief of staff, parliamentarian, university affairs committee chair, student issues committee chair, diversity and inclusion chair, and special projects committee chair. They wanted to be transparent in who they appointed, as well as have a diverse group of students.

“Getting students to see exactly who you believe should be there is going to help out a lot,” Collins said. “If we’re not willing to advertise who we want to appoint, then I think that we’re trying to hide something. … So now, whenever I see someone who isn’t advertising that, it makes me question, why are we not advertising that?”

Voting begins on April 6 and ends on April 7. A QR code will be posted on SGA’s social media accounts to direct students to the voting form.