2 candidates run for student body president

Photo by Roxanne Ready

Student organization representatives nominated candidates for Student Government Association president at a mandatory monthly meeting Monday.

Roxanne Ready, Editor-in-Chief

Update: The Student Government Association changed the voting dates from the last week in April to the first week in May, from April 30 to May 4, and has added Campus Activities Board events during that week as voting locations. The story has been edited below to reflect the changes.

Student representatives nominated four candidates on Monday for president of the Student Government Association in the 2018-2019 academic year, but only two plan to run.

Two candidates—second-year visual design student Jesseca Greene and second-year business management student Jacob Smith—accepted nominations at the April Student Advisory Council meeting, a mandatory monthly meeting of student organization representatives.

The other two nominated students chose not to run. Will Keuthe declined the nomination immediately, while Nick Kiraly accepted the nomination but dropped out of the race immediately following the meeting after discussing the presidential duties with SGA members.

Greene told Campus Current she hopes to “expose the campus to a different type of leadership” and “put a little bit more diversity on campus” events.

“I really want to put AACC on the map,” Greene said. “I didn’t start ‘hearing hearing’ about AACC until recently, but I want to try and do more with SGA than meetings … I want to make us big.”

She also said she wants to make the Nest, AACC’s web-based student organization management tool, more accessible by creating video and written tutorials that teach club members how to use it.

“2019 will be my last year at AACC, and I wanted to personally leave my mark on campus,” Greene added.

Smith told Campus Current he has been working with outgoing SGA President Johnathan O’Dea for “two or three months” to “get a feel for the position” and its responsibilities.

He added that the “biggest” reason he wants to run is to “carry on what Johnathan has done.”

“It’s probably been one of the best years for the SGA,” Smith said. “To see it inspire people has really inspired me to be a big part of the community, and I want to continue doing that for other people.”

Smith said if he is elected, his focus will be to encourage student engagement on campus and to give students “a voice” at the college through the SGA.

“I want everyone on this campus to feel like they’re part of something,” he said.

The candidates have three weeks to campaign for the position. Campus Current will host a debate between the two candidates in mid-April.

Students will be able to vote for a candidate online from April 30 to May 4 by following a link on the homepage of the Nest, or in person at various CAB events during that week.

Correction: A previous version of this article misidentified Will Keuthe as Will Keaton.