Student Association executive board elections for the 2019-20 year will run April 2-4 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Student Union Theater. The president, vice president and treasurer of the e-board are paid a combined total of $45,000 per year, and are responsible for managing a budget of over $4 million paid for by UB students’ mandatory student activity fee. Here is a breakdown of candidates running for e-board elections:
CLEAR Party
Members of the CLEAR party from left to right: Eric Weinman, Sadie Kratt, Abbygail Hoke.
President
Name: Sadie Kratt
Year:Junior
Major:Environmental geoscience and geographic information science
Kratt is the current SA Environmental Affairs director and the SUNY SA’s Director of Sustainability. She is running on a platform of transparency and student engagement, which she plans to facilitate through “online and in-person” town halls through Facebook Live and Google Hangouts.
She also hopes to promote change within the larger SUNY SA, which she said implements resolutions that have already been passed at UB. Kratt said she wants to promote environmental sustainability such as increasing the number of electric vehicle parking lots and cited the current SUNY chancellor’s goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent.
Kratt said she hopes to increase the availability of counseling services for students experiencing mental health issues, regardless of the extremity of their problems.
“Students should have access to counseling services and no matter the severity of the situation,” Kratt said.
Vice President
Name: Abbygail Hoke
Year: Sophomore
Major: Political scienceand history
Hoke is the coach of UB’s Mock Trial team. She said her time there has given her leadership experience which prompted her to advocate for UB clubs.
Hoke said she hopes to ensure students feel respected and represented by SA. She said increasing communication between students, SA and clubs will improve this.
She said she wants clubs to be familiar with her. Hoke said she plans to attend club meetings, increase face-to-face contact with club members and send weekly emails to clubs so they can openly communicate with her.
Treasurer
Name: Eric Weinman
Year: Sophomore
Major: Computer engineering, mathematics-economics and political science
Weinman is the current SA Senate chair and helped work on the finance handbook this past winter.
He said he hopes to create video guides to increase financial literacy among SA clubs, as he said the financial handbook is too lengthy for students to take the time to understand.
Weinman said he wants to implement emergency-purchase order lines for clubs, as well as make adjustments to the SA Senate’s late fee and rollover policies. This would include creating separate brackets for club fees and goals depending on club budgets.
He said his time as senate chair helps him to remain impartial in financial and club matters.
P.R.I.D.E. Party
The P.R.I.D.E. party from left to right: Kendra Harris, Yousouf Amolegbe, Georgia Hulbert.
President
Name: Yousouf Amolegbe
Year: Fourth year
Major: Aerospace engineering
Amolegbe is SA’s event manager, activities coordinator for the African Student Association and a party organizer.
P.R.I.D.E.’s agenda stands for progressive, reform, integrity, diversity and empowerment initiatives. They hope to advocate for an increase in black faculty members and the Educational Opportunity Program, as well as implementing mandatory sexual violence training for all student athletes and Inter-Greek Council members.
It is the only party advocating specifically for disability services.
Amolegbe said they plan to implement diversity training for students in order to have a better educated, open-minded student body. He said he hopes to reach out to different religious clubs to ask what they need and to determine the best ways to accomodate for students with differing religious beliefs.
He said the P.R.I.D.E. party does not want to make any “promises” so they do not disappoint the student body if unable to fulfill any initiatives.
Vice President
Name: Georgia Hulbert
Year: Junior
Major: Political science
Hulbert is SA’s assistant entertainment director and is the president and founder of the Student Disability Advocacy Alliance and said she identifies as a person with a disability.
She said the P.R.I.D.E. party hopes to advocate for disability services on campus and continue SA’s current initiatives of sexual assault prevention, mental health awareness and implementing menstrual products in all bathrooms.
Hulbert said she hopes to establish recycling centers so students who live off campus can recycle if their housing complex does not provide the necessary amenities to do so.
Treasurer
Name: Kendra Harris
Year: Junior
Major: Economics
Harris is currently the treasurer of the Black Student Union, is an SA senator and is on the SA finance committee.
She highlighted her experience handling BSU’s $33,000 budget as well as helping to determine club budgets as a finance committee member.
Harris said she wants to encourage clubs to post their general body meetings and information online. She said this would help students to have a better understanding of how to get involved with clubs.
Harris said she wants to “ensure students know where their money is going” and emphasize diversity and inclusion on campus.
Student Reform Party
The Students Reform party from left to right: Jaycee Miller, Daniel Connolly, Omran Omar Albarazanchi.
President
Name: Omran Omar Albarazanchi
Year: Junior
Major: Chemical and biological engineering
Albarazanchi has been an SA senator since last year, has been a critic of the current SA administration and said he hopes to create a “truly welcoming” student government that is more inclusive.
He cited his experience starting a political science club, being the president of the engineering council, and managing a $200 million college budget at his previous university.
He specifically hopes to efficiently train SA senators so they can act as an “executive oversight.”
Albarazanchi said he actively advocated for senators to vote against derecognizing Pre-Meds Without Borders, which he said was about to be derecognized due to a “pure miscommunication problem,” and hopes to implement a rule tabling motions to derecognize clubs for at least one week before voting.
Albarazanchi also said he hopes to increase UB’s visibility in terms of student engagement and representation at conferences. He said he feels smaller public universities and even community colleges are “outpacing” UB in these areas.
Vice President
Name: Daniel Connolly
Year: Junior
Major: Computer science
Connolly also became an SA senator this year after running unopposed. He said he wants to promote a culture of humility and servitude toward the students SA represents.
Connolly hopes to “completely revamp” the SA website by hiring a graphic designer, and ensure the entirety of the SA budget, club constitutions and resources are posted online.
If elected, Connolly wants to invite the 2020 presidential candidates to UB in an effort to give students “first-hand experience” hearing from political candidates.
As a freshman, Connolly was a part of UB Students for Trump. When asked about his political affiliations, he said freedom of speech was really important within SA and hoped to bring speakers from both sides of the political spectrum to give “all students opportunities.”
Treasurer
Name: Jaycee Miller
Year: Junior
Major: Political science and French
Miller was a SA Senator last year who cited her experience as a treasurer for her high school class during her bid.
Miller said she hoped to put up a “digital module” for finance, which clubs could participate in online in order to fulfill part of their requirement to maintain their permanent recognition.
Miller also plans to “reframe” the language in the SA handbook in order to “hold [SA members] accountable” to their jobs. She gave the example of setting hard time limits such as “a maximum of three weeks” on how long SA can take to process certain requests from clubs, rather than giving time frames such as “two weeks or longer.”
Going Forward, Going Blue
Marina Akaic of the Going Forward, Going Blue party.
Treasurer
Name: Marina Akaic
Year: Senior
Major:International trade
Akaic hopes to “get involved” in her education and her community by running for the position of SA treasurer. She cited her previous experience handling part of the finances for her mother’s daycare center.
She has not previously held an SA position, but hopes to “build on” and “learn from” current SA treasurer Tanahiry Escamilla.
If elected, Akaic wants to prevent student activity fees from being increased and wants to increase funding to SA-represented clubs.
Akaic believes through increasing diversity in SA, she could bring “fresh” perspectives while solving SA-related problems.
Correction: The original version of the breakdown said Jaycee Miller is a current SA Senator. She was a senator last year. The original version also said Eric Weinman helped the finance committee write the finance handbook. He assisted the current SA treasurer while she worked on the finance handbook. The original article also omitted Kendra Harris' involvement with the SA Senate and said that BSU's budget is $35,000. Harris is currently an SA Senator and BSU's budget is $33,000.
The Spectrum is planning on discussing SA endorsements for Monday's paper.
Email:news@ubspectrum.com
Jacklyn Walters is a senior communication major and The Spectrum's managing editor. She enjoys bringing up politics at the dinner table and seeing dogs on campus.
Tanveen Vohra is a former senior news editor and covered international relations and graduate student protests.
