Zane Oliver Watt Hoven
The candidates answering questions during the panel.
SGA hosted a “Meet the Candidates” event in the Student Union Theater on Mar. 11, allowing students to hear the nominees plans for the upcoming future of UMKC.
The role of the president on campus can take up a lot of time and energy. Ophelia Griffin, a past president of SGA, offered some advice to the future president.
“It’s not about who is in charge, it’s about the students,” said Griffin, a senior studying communications. “Go into it with an open heart and open mind. It’s really easy to carry your own bias going into it. Be open, be honest and be willing to help people.”
Ticket 1- Emma Garcia & Bhavana Ediga
Emma Garcia is a sophomore studying psychology and she decided to run for SGA President with VP Bhavana Ediga in order to attempt to get different perspectives and new faces in student government at UMKC.
“There are some issues that when you’re not in government you notice more than people who are,” said Garcia.
One of her main goals is to improve campus life by creating more spaces where students can feel safe and recognized. She said that some of the most important things are smaller issues that students face and creating a community on campus.
“I feel like making campus more comfortable, though it may seem small, can make such a big difference in students’ experiences, especially when they are minorities and are terrified of what’s going on outside of campus,” said Garcia. “These students deserve to be represented by somebody who’s just like them.”
Ticket 2- Justice Horn, Andrew Tracey, Shewit Abai & Manasa Sakthivel
Justice Horn is a graduate student in the Masters of Public Administration program and is running for SGA office along with running mates Andrew Tracey (vice president), Shewit Abai (director of internal affairs) and Manasa Sakthivel (comptroller).
Horn’s campaign focuses on five main policies: parking, food, diversity, climate and support. He wants to advocate for larger issues within the UMKC system and the student body while also making sure that minority groups are being represented fairly.
“As UMKC moves away from having a diversity office or a simple statement sharing values about diversity, student leadership needs to remain firm on that,” said Horn. “We need to be creative in ensuring that there are more resources than there are students.”
Being a member of multiple communities that are being largely affected by the current administration and changes within the university, Horn feels that he would be able to represent groups that don’t have their voices heard as much on campus.
“Being a part of the LGBTQ+ community, I represent a lot of the communities who are going to be and are impacted from any of the issues in the state, system or administration,” said Horn.
Ticket 3- Michael Viermann, Amgad Benkhadra, Xuan Ly & Caden Litterst
Michael Viermann, a junior studying biology is running for president next to his vice president Amgad Benkhadra, director of internal affairs Xuan Ly and comptroller Caden Litterst. They are hoping to create a campus that allows for more student engagement, representation and sustainability.
Viermann wants university administration to work with him in what he believes should be getting done on campus, and get the policies into motion quickly so that the admin doesn’t have the chance to delay the process.
He decided to run after being a leader of many different clubs on campus and realizing he wanted to make a change and help make students enjoy UMKC.
Viermann is interested in getting more students involved in student government, and he is a new face compared to some others who have been in SGA for some time.
“I’m not doing this just because I want the position, I’d like to actually see some change happening,” said Viermann. “I have a lot of friends from very diverse backgrounds telling me what concerns they have.”
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Students can vote until March 18 on RooGroups.
oowzg2@umsystem.edu