The DePaul Student Government Association (SGA) started its annual spring elections. Candidate applications are open from April 11-27 and elections are May 2-5. Available positions include executive cabinet, college senators, year senators and community senators. Eligible candidates must have a GPA of 2.5 and be part or full-time students. College senators must be enrolled in the college they are representing and community senators must be a member of the position’s population. Students need 25 signatures to get on the ballot. Terms last one academic year.

SGA is responsible for being the “official voice” for DePaul students. Student representatives serve as advocates for their peers, according to their website. They work with senior administration and broader community members.

Last quarter, SGA hosted Queer Prom, Public Safety Townhall and started initatives for Campus Connect.

The DePaulia interviewed several candidates on their initiatives for their SGA campaigns.

Adora Alava, running for Executive Vice President of Diversity and Equity

Adora Alava is a sophomore economics major with a minor in real estate. She is the incumbent executive vice president (EVP) of Diversity and Equity and has served two terms prior to this election. Her first term as Senator for Community and Government Relationships and second term as EVP for Diversity and Equity. Alava is also involved in student organizations, such as being cultural chair of KALAHI, DePaul’s Filipnx Student Organization, an associate member of DePaul’s Females in Finance and head chair of DePaul’s Dining Committee.

If elected, she plans to continue her initiatives that were started in the last term, including intercultural planning, sexual health care resources available to students on campus, combatting all types of violence and ensuring students engaging in activism and protests are protected. As head of the Dining Committee, Alava is continuing to implement initiatives for “broader and guaranteed Kosher and Halal meal plans.”

“I would love to continue advocating and encouraging more representation, diversity and equity as a woman of color in the Student Government Association at DePaul,” Alava said.

Sergio Godinez, running for Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs

Sergio Godinez is a sophomore double majoring in American Studies and Political Science with a minor in Spanish. Godinez has held one prior term with the Student Government Association as Senator for first-generation college students. He is running for EVP of Academic Affairs, where he plans to make sure student voices are heard, recognized and respected within decisions regarding education in the university.

“It’s important to have [student] voices within those decision processes,” Godinez said.

If elected, Godinez hopes to accomplish a few initiatives with his new role. He wants to make sure that he acts as a liaison to the Faculty Council, regularly meets with the provost, supports each college senator in their initiatives, advocates for minority and underrepresented groups and allocates resources to solve more systemic issues regarding education.

“There’s a lot of structural changes that need to happen,” Godinez said.

Kevin Holechko and Magoli Garcia, President and Vice President SGA 

Junior Kevin Holechko is running for president and is running mates with sophomore Magoli Garcia as vice president. Garcia is a political science major, while Holechko is an education major. Initiatives the duo are running on is expanding the first-generation scholarship they have worked on this year to include open-source textbooks.

“We want to be in intro courses that a lot of first-year or second-year students will be taking and try to get their instructors to transition to an open-source textbook,” Holechko said.

He emphasized that the textbooks are the same quality as the ones students would usually pay for.

Holechko is currently serving as vice president and Garcia as chief of staff.

Another initiative in their agenda is to take an active approach to be involved in student lives. The duo wants to do more on-campus events, but also encourage off campus for students. They also want to hold monthly meetings with their campus partners, including clubs and organizations.

“[Students] can’t always make a meeting Thursday night,” Holechko said. Food would be provided during these meetings to facilitate more of a community setting. “We would rather have it so they’re telling Magoli and me what [they] actually need and what challenges [they’re] facing,” he added.

The duo also wants to make the shuttle trial into a mainstay on campus. They are considering that a lot of students do not feel comfortable on the L and want to expand the shuttle system into the daytime aside from just the evening hours. They also want to make Vinny Vans more accessible to off campus students by expanding the program to include more mileage.

Holechko and Garcia want to remind others that while SGA is a club, they are taking their roles seriously.

“I really just enjoy meeting and hearing a student’s experience and being able to play a role to really help them [thrive],” Holechko said.