By By Maggie Cassidy, News Staff

Student Government Association (SGA) nominated two candidates for student body president at its joint senate for presidential nominations Monday night.
SGA Vice President for Student Affairs Ryan Fox and Senator Matt Soleyn accepted nominations.
To become a candidate, senators must be nominated by fellow senators during the joint senate. Senators can then accept or reject nominations.
Fox, who has worked in SGA for about three years and served as a White Hall Resident Assistant for two years, was one of the first senators nominated and immediately accepted.
Soleyn, a fourth-year student who has been involved in SGA for three years and is currently the Resident Student Association (RSA) vice president of housing services, hesitated before declining his first nomination. When he was nominated a second time, he accepted. He was the only senator to be nominated twice.
‘Really, I had no plan to run for student body president,’ he told The News last night. ‘I told people actually several weeks beforehand that I wasn’t actually going to run.’
Earlier that night, the senate passed Parliamentarian Chris Bourne’s motion to waive a clause in SGA’s Direct Elections Manual requiring potential candidates to obtain 300 student signatures in order to accept a nomination. Fox was the only senator to obtain 300 signatures.
Soleyn said he changed his mind when Fox was the only person nominated.
‘It was pretty much evident that there wasn’t going to be that much of a direct election,’ he said. ‘The first time I was nominated I declined, and I hoped that someone would [run against Fox]. … I felt that it would really be good to offer the students some sort of alternative choice, to have somebody who can offer alternative ideas to what Ryan Fox has and debate him in the debates.’
Declining his first nomination was not indicative of his commitment to the presidency, Soleyn said.
‘I definitely am dedicated to the students,’ he said. ‘I think that I have a lot to offer that Ryan Fox wouldn’t have. I think that one of the things that kind of has to be looked at is having a really strong student voice that’s not going to back down when there’s a challenge.’
Soleyn and Fox agreed that they have been at odds several times during their tenures in SGA. Soleyn accused Fox of failing to provide a strong student voice, saying that he brings ideas to the students instead of implementing students’ ideas and too often sides with the administration instead of fighting for students’ demands, while Fox said Soleyn often misses the bigger picture.
‘If you look at the issue and if someone wants something new and it essentially would get charged to everyone else ‘hellip; some things we have to look and say it’s not worth the cost to every other student,’ Fox said. ‘I think that’s where Matt differs and says if a student wants it, we should do it. He focuses on one student in the moment instead of really looking at everybody else.’
Both candidates said they plan to run campaigns based on accountability and transparency. Soleyn said his focus will be providing a voice for students’ demands, while Fox said he wants to open the flow of communication between students and SGA and provide new ways to help student groups advertise events.
SGA President Rob Ranley said he expects this campaign season to run more smoothly than last year’s, which was plagued by grievances, an attempt to block a nomination and then-Parliamentarian Grant Oberg abruptly stepping down. SGA then brought back the Senate Nominations and Elections Committee (SNEC), which was originally created to oversee the direct elections process.
‘From the work I know that Chris Bourne has been doing and the way he’s been leading [SNEC], it seems like they’ve really learned from last year,’ Ranley said.’ ‘What I’m really hoping to see is a lot more focus on the candidates and their goals.’
Voting begins on the myNEU portal March 25 and ends March 30.