Each candidate running was contacted for their input. Only four candidates replied for comment. 

The DePaul Student Government Association fall election began Friday, Oct. 25, which will determine positions in the house of representatives. Ballots can be accessed via votesga.depaul.edu until Oct. 30 at midnight.

SGA is seeking representatives for the eight colleges at DePaul. The number of representatives that each of the colleges receives is proportional to the population of each college. Additionally, SGA is electing three representatives each for first year, second year, third year and fourth and fifth year students.  

“These are going to be the people that represent your year and your classes and they’re going to be the loudest voice for those groups of people,” Peyton Deck, who is running for First Year Representative, said. “It’s just important to vote and contribute because those are the people that you’re choosing to represent you and represent your community on campus.” 

In order to have their name appear on the ballot, the student running must have gathered 20 signatures. However, students can pursue the write-in candidate option until Oct. 29 at midnight if they missed the application window but still wish to run for an SGA position. 

Who’s running?

College of Education representative – Angelo Battung

Law School representative – Rawshan Rasha (incumbent)

 College of Business representative – Isabella Simkus, Sreekar Reddy and Lina Alhasan

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) representative – Nora Riba and Maryam Naveed

College of Computing and Digital Media (CDM) representative  – Noah Schremser and Sravya Gogikar (write-in)

First Year representative – Peyton Deck

Second Year Representative – Jadynn Gilmer (write-in)

What do they stand for?

Graduate student Gogikar plans to advocate for comfortable student adjustment by making resources easy to find as CDM representative.

“As an international student, I faced many challenges after coming here, like how to get involved in student organizations and how to get reach to career activities,” Gogikar said. “This is the main reason I want to be a representative for all the students, especially CDM.”

Simkus was a representative in the Hispanic Latinx Student Union at her previous school before she transferred to DePaul and hopes to generate productive dialogue among DePaul staff and students.  

“Being a student representative for the school of business is a new role I’ve never taken up before, so I’m ready for the new experience,” Simkus said. “Something particular that got me involved was the encampment last year. A lot of students had a lot of opinions on that, and it made me realize there’s a gap of communication between students and staff.”

Deck expressed wanting to be a voice for her peers and to offer support for their concerns.

“One of my main initiatives is peer-on-peer support,” Deck said. “I think it’s so important that students have access to support from their peers, especially peers that are going through similar situations.” 

Clearly publicizing safety protocols for students is a goal of Deck’s, along with fostering a sense of community. Deck wants to bridge the gap between commuter students and the student body living on campus. 

“I’ve spoken to commuter friends who feel like they can’t be a part of clubs or access the resources because they don’t live on campus. Which is entirely not true because the community built at DePaul is for all of its students, not just the students living in the residence halls,” Deck said. 

Schremser also wants to advocate for SGA events on both the Loop and the Lincoln Park campuses to unify the student body. 

“The problem is that I’m supposed to be representing a college that’s entirely in the Loop-based campus, yet all of the student government operates in Lincoln Park,” Schremser said. “They have no idea about the student government and that’s crazy because the student government is supposed to be representing them.” 

In addition, Schremser wants to find a way to make SGA general body meetings more accessible for Loop campus students. 

“I feel like SGA does a lot for its students, and not enough people know about that. It’s my goal to spread the word about what our student government does and how it can benefit each one of our students,” Schremser said.

Related Stories:

• SGA appoints new chief of staff and prepares for upcoming election
• Cabinet members appointed, membership chair resigns as Student Government Association prepares for fall election.
• Student Government Association inherits new structure, aims to focus on community and collaboration

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