Meet the candidates running for the 2017-2018 student government executive board. The candidates and their Facebook pages are listed below in alphabetical order. Voting begins on Tuesday, March 28 and ends on Friday, March 31, the day the winners will be announced. Students can vote through a link in their AU portal.
Student government elections are underway. Here is a list of all the students running for office. Voting begins on Tuesday, March 28 on the AU portal.
President
Andy Schwarz
Andy Schwarz is a sophomore from Hickory, Maryland majoring in political science in the School of Public Affairs. In high school, he was the captain of his debate and wrestling teams and was involved in one of the largest boy scout troops in Maryland. He also volunteers at Woodrow Wilson High School in Tenleytown as a wrestling coach.
The main reason he is running for president is to give back to the AU community, he said.
“I haven’t done that yet. AU has given me so much in the last year and a half, a lot of life lessons, a lot of character building and I haven’t given anything back to the community,” Schwarz said.
Read his platform here.
Haley Lickstein
Haley Lickstein is a sophomore from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida and a CLEG major in SPA. She has been involved with SG since her freshman year and is currently Chair of the Finance Committee in the Undergraduate Senate. Lickstein decided to get involved with SG when she experienced a situation on campus that made her feel uncomfortable. As she campaigned for Senate, she had the chance to talk to many students on campus and was able to sympathize with the way they felt.
“It really made me realize how much work needs to get done,” Lickstein said.
Lickstein’s campaign is centered around the phrase, “This is our moment”, which according to her is about changing the way students’ concerns are heard on campus. As president, she plans to increase student communication with SG about concerns on campus. She also plans on organizing regular meetings with leaders of different student organizations to share new ideas and listen to their concerns. Former SG President Sasha Gilthorpe endorsed her campaign.
“It’s impossible for any one student to really know how everyone is feeling, but to make sure that their voices can all be amplified in the best way possible,” Lickstein said.
Read her platform here.
Taylor Dumpson
Taylor Dumpson is a junior from Salisbury, Maryland majoring in law and society in SPA. She is currently the president of Intercultural Greek Collective, the vice president for Student Advocates for Native Communities and is one of the subcommittee chairs for AU’s NAACP. She has no prior experience in SG.
Dumpson’s platform is called “A [Different] U” and focuses on five core ideas: accessibility, transparency, inclusion, support and accountability.
“I’m running for Student Government president specifically because I felt a lot of times that students like me, and students from marginalized communities, haven’t always felt like they’ve had a voice on campus,” Dumpson said. “And really to try to bring an intersectional approach to the different issues we have and we face as a student body.”
SG President Devontae Torriente endorsed Dumpson in a recent Eagle op-ed.
Read her platform here.
Terry Altherr
Terry Altherr is a junior from Newton, Massachusetts majoring in CLEG in SPA. Altherr has no prior SG experience. He served as the 2014-2015 Vice President of Recognition in the Residence Hall Association for Anderson Hall. The following year, he became the National Communications Coordinator In Training for the RHA.
One of the biggest issues Atherr said he wants to address is the discontent on campus. Additionally, he has released two videos showing his plan to support students who are seeking documented citizen status.
“There’s been more of this kind of discontent on campus and I don’t mean discontent because of the fact Trump got elected,” Altherr said. “But like more of this divide, whether it be division within racial groups, religious groups or [on] ideological grounds, and I think that has divided us to some degree.”
Read his platform here.
Vice President
Audra Gale
Audra Gale is a sophomore from Long Island, New York with a double major in SPA and the College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to serving as a senator for the campus at large, Gale is also a chair of the Student Advocacy Committee, a member of the Finance Committee and Committee on Diversity and Inclusion in student government.
After speaking with the leaders of Student Union Board, the Kennedy Political Union and Women’s Initiative, Gale created a platform that includes more interactive events for students on campus. She plans on rebranding SUB to make it more appealing to students and working with Greek Life to co-sponsor more events. Gale also wants to expand the Good Samaritan policy to protect students in emergency situations and combat hazing.
“It is important to me that since I had such a great time being at AU, I want everyone to be able to have that experience,” Gale said.
Read her platform here.
Ryan Fedasiuk
Ryan Fedasiuk is a sophomore from Phoenix, Arizona studying in the School of International Service. His SG experience includes serving as a KPU staff member for the past year, where he organized events such as guest speakers Senator Susan Collins and “The Pollsters.”
Fedasiuk said he decided to run for VP after many of his peers from student organizations told him that he seemed right for the job. Fedasiuk’s platform is split into three main ideas: communicating more with students and student groups on campus, making students more included in the democratic process and creating events that are more accessible to students by fixing the accommodation request system.
“Events shouldn’t just be events,” Fedasiuk said. “They should inspire or empower students to make change in their communities that they are passionate about.”
Read his platform here.
Ryan Shepard
Ryan Shepard is a junior from North Plainfield, New Jersey majoring in journalism in the School of Communication. Shepard has no prior SG experience, however he has served as treasurer and event director for the Black Student Alliance, editor-in-chief at the Odyssey Online at AU, an HBO intern, president and event director of Speak Fresh. Additionally, he is a columnist for The Eagle and a DJ for WVAU.
His platform is separated into three different core components: innovation, customization and repair.
“I decided to run for this role mainly because it’s involving campus life and I’ve been an event director for a lot of different student organizations and I thought it was something I could do, I’d have a lot of fun doing it and be good at,” Shepard said.
Read his platform here.
Solomon Self
Solomon Self is a sophomore from American Canyon, California with a double major in SOC and SIS. He is currently a member of the SG SIS Undergraduate Council under the vice president’s cabinet and has worked on many guest speaker events.
As vice president, Self plans to unite student groups on campus together to collaborate toward solving problems on campus. He also believes that uniting forces between SG and KPU would bring a variety of events on campus, from performers to guest speakers.
“I feel like we’re better, more engaging and more relevant when we have more viewpoints and more backgrounds and experiences,” Self said.
Read his platform here.
Comptroller
Christine Machovec
Christine Machovec is a junior from Ellicott City, Maryland majoring in economics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Machovec has no prior SG experience. She has served as the vice president of finance for Hughes Hall in RHA for two years. This prepares her to handle a budget, Machovec said. Her platform can be separated into three different core ideas: advocacy, transparency and supporting clubs financially.
“Part of me running for comptroller was the familiarity with writing a budget and making sure programming reaches students because one of the most frustrating things is in RHA is how often that money doesn’t reach the people that it needs to be reaching,” Machovec said.
Read her platform here.
Elizabeth Pancotti
Elizabeth Pancotti is a sophomore from Dallas, Texas majoring in applied mathematics in the College of Arts and Sciences. In SG, she is currently the deputy director of policy at the Student Advocacy Center and sits onthe Sexual Assault Working Group in the assessment subcommittee. Additionally she served and reported on the financial aid working group under President Sasha Gilthorpe.
Her platform includes taking action during the upcoming off-budget year, expanding transparency in the SG budget and requiring inclusivity and support to students.
“I think that during my time at AU I’ve seen a lot of places for improvement in the [SG] office,” Pancotti said. I think there’s a lot of responsibility and it’s sort of ambiguously written into the way SG functions so it can be a role that does a lot, or does a little.”
Read her platform here.
Secretary
Kris Schneider
Kris Schneider is a sophomore from West Caldwell, New Jersey and is double majoring in journalism in SOC and political science in SPA. He is the current SG Secretary and is running for a second term. He started in SG as deputy director of public communication under former Secretary Martin Valderruten and associate secretary under former Secretary Faith Rokowski.
As 2016-2017 SG secretary, Schneider said one of his accomplishments was creating a new student government website. He said while he was busy building an “infrastructure” for SG secretary, he believes there is a lot more work to be done.
“I think where I am today as a student, regardless where I am in student government, is somebody who is acutely aware of issues that affect people that I’m close with,” Schneider said. “But my student leader side of that and where I want to continue as a student leader is applying that to the student body at large.”
Read his platform here.
mcarrasco@theeagleonline.com and lcalitri@theeagleonline.com
