Zetta Cannedy | Political science and global studies junior

Running for: president

Three words to describe her campaign: transparency, advocacy, empowerment

Why are you running?

So, I am running because I wasn’t really sure when I first joined SGA as a junior class senator, which was, dang, two years ago now. It seems not that long ago. I was like, you know, I’ll just give it a try and then I fell in love with it. I joined the cabinet and then I got elected as the vice president of external affairs, which was previously the secretary. And that really inspired me, getting to work with Gabbie and Eric, it just really inspired me to continue all the work we’ve done because, we’ve rewritten the constitution, we’ve written in the bylaws and we’ve created a student bill of rights, that it’s going to have to continue into next year if we are going to put it in the handbook. And so, I really realized that if I want this reputation to continue for student government, then I need to step up and take on this role. And I am running like truly for the students. I love MSU, I consider it my second home and I want to do good. 

Top 3 goals: long-term goals, reproductive health care and transparency

First off, creating sustainable goals for the student body. So like I said this year, we created a constitution, a bylaw, a student bill of rights. We really did a lot of reformatting of SGA because honestly, our foundational documents for student government weren’t great. But coming into the next year, it’s going to be about reforming and transforming the reputation SGA has with the student body. So the first thing we need to do is create sustainable goals that are long-term. Every executive team comes in every year with goals, just for that academic year. And so when they leave it all gets reset again and it really limits the things that you can try to solve. Because like I said, we keep hearing from students that parking is a problem, but it’s not going to be solved in a year. And so first, I do want to create long-term goals that students can look at and the next executive team can come in and say, “Okay this is what they were doing. Let’s continue it.”

Then my second thing that I want to do is I do want to create a fund for affordable and accessible birth control. One thing I keep hearing is that women on campus don’t feel that they can go to the Vinson Health Center for reproductive health care. And birth control is important. It’s important not just for safety but also it’s required for a lot of people’s health. And so I’ve heard students say that they can get it prescribed here but it is in no way affordable whatsoever. So I do think that there needs to be some kind of fund created so that students are able to access it and afford it. The United Nations considers access to affordable birth control a human right. And it sucks we don’t even have that human right here at MSU which is kind of ridiculous. 

And then lastly, the third thing I want to do is I also think that is important is, and I talked about this in the debate, is student morale is very low and that’s because  we are talking to students today, and they actually feel like they are at a failing university, which was actually pretty shocking to hear. I mean, in student government, I obviously know I serve on the budget oversight committee. I know that there are financial issues,  that we are in a budget deficit. I know that there are student retention problems, that we cannot keep students here on campus. And at the moment, it seems like we cannot keep a president in office. I didn’t actually see until talking to students how that is affecting student morale and how many students are seriously considering leaving and that is because they feel the university is failing. And so one of the things in our values is transparency. It’s not just from SGA but we want transparency from higher-ups in the university because we see these problems. Whether they mean for these problems to be known by students or not, students know about them. But the students don’t know how they’re solving them. And even in my position as VP of external affairs, I don’t know how they’re solving them. And as my university and the students’ university, we deserve to know those solutions.

Brylee Grubb Erwin | Psychology senior

Running for: president

Three words to describe her campaign: Inclusion, Uplifting, Impactful

Why are you running?

So, I am running to basically advocate for everyone here on campus. I have experience with being a first generation student with learning disabilities on the underrepresentation and also kind of like not knowing where or who to ask for help in certain situations. So, being that person to kind of push forward. And like, here are the actual resources, you know, here’s where you find the resources and kind of support and make sure that not only students in those populations, but all of our like diverse students, we have a really big culturally diverse population and make sure all of them are represented. Because I feel like a lot of times, we get in this small circle of people and not able to branch out and actually understand all of the students’ struggles, everything and find the commonalities that we really lack in like, at the university. So we can fix it for, you know, everyone, not just a small population here on campus.

Top 3 goals: safety and security, infrastructure and resources and school spirit

So safety, every student should feel safe here on campus. We lack, and I don’t want to step on too many toes here, but we lack the resources here to keep students safe in classrooms. Making sure students know all the also resources with campus police and Title IX are seen and students actually know how to reach out and know that if students ever do feel unsafe, they can call campus place and it’s never a hassle for them. Because I know myself personally, I’ve had experience where I’ve been unsafe and I had to call the campus police and they are very friendly and they’re willing to help out. We just have to let them know and kind of make it more accessible in a way for students to make those reports. I know we had the safety app and making sure students know that they can click on the app to make Title IX reports, or call the campus police because I think that’s kind of unknown for some students because we have so many apps. So, in a way, with a lot of my ideas and stuff, it goes back to creating an accessible website where it takes information from all into one. So it makes it easy and accessible. And so they don’t have to go a roundabout ways to, “Oh, no, you’re calling the wrong place, call this person, call this person, call that person.” I’m making sure that that is accessible to everyone and they’re not passed around in a way. 

And resources goes back to the website. Also, there’s resources to be successful and with that working with the first seminar. And I think they’re calling it the first adventure seminar now, as the new name of it, if you want to be exact. So, making sure all those resources are available and easily accessible for students. 

So to go back to resources and school spirit, I plan on getting information from students. And the best way for that is to collect data from them. Going in classes, going to the first adventure seminar, not only them, but going to multiple colleges here on campus, every single one of them and talking to students and areas like this and getting their actual feedback on. You know, “What will get you all to come out to events. What will get you all to come out to football games? What will get you all kind of involved here on campus?” Because a lot of people come to school, go back home, and they don’t interact. And in the long run, I think that they’re going to look back and kind of regret it. But making sure they know that there are groups to join, you can join them this way, that way and kind of getting their feedback on how can we improve school spirit. Because it’s not just one person’s opinion, it’s all the students. And I think that actually going out and talking to them will help a lot. 

Vincent Peter | Mechanical engineering sophomore

Running for: vice president of external affairs

Interview edited for length with the consent of the candidate:

I’m from the island of Dominica. I am currently a RA. I am also a senator for the Caribbean Student Organization. One of the clubs that I’m involved with in the community is Cafe Con Leche, better known as the road to college. Yeah, but I’m a very outgoing, very involved student. My biggest goal If I’m elected is inclusion. I really think that it’s important to make sure that everyone is not just being heard, but everyone is participating, you know. And I think it is so important that when we come here, that we can be a part of what’s going on and not feel left out. There are conditions and there are things that international students face that the rest of the student body may not know about, or don’t know. So I just want to help liaise that information, those problems from the students who may feel left or may not necessarily have a voice and just let them know that, hey, we’re in a position now where we can make something happen.

Samantha Wilson | Accounting and management information systems sophomore

Running for: vice president of external affairs

I am a non-traditional student with a lot of life experience that can be beneficial to students looking to get into the job market and survive in the real world. Communication and community between non-traditional students, that can teach a lot, like I said, to the traditional students and in between the different colleges. So it’s not so much a team base as it is an MSU base, okay? Mostly communication and making sure that the representation for the student government association is actually indicative of the student body population. There’s so many different students on campus and the student government senate should mirror the community.

Joseph Arthur | Biology and chemistry junior

Running for: vice president of internal affairs

Well, I  think foremost, people should know I love MSU. I was only meant to stay for my freshman year, but I fell in love with the campus. I fell in love with the people, the friends I made, the family I made, it’s a great campus. We have a great campus here, and all I want to do is help the students and be a resource for them.

The biggest thing I want to accomplish is I want to make MSU a campus truly for the students. I believe that in the past it hasn’t really been student focused. Administration, upper admin hasn’t really done stuff. They aren’t very student focused, it’s been very unilateral. Little students are involved in the decision making and I think that’s wrong. I think decisions for students should be made by students. And that’s the biggest thing I want to accomplish for this position, I want to help students. I want to help student organizations. I want to be able to elevate the student body so they can have a better experience and MSU.