Chris Brown to run for SGA president unopposed

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Photo courtesy Chris Brown

Chris Brown (right) and Gabby Nobile (left) are running uncontested for president and executive vice president of the SGA.

Yunkyo Kim, news staff

Chris Brown and Gabby Nobile will run uncontested for president and vice president of the Student Government Association, or SGA, for the upcoming school year. Students can cast ballots from April 7 to April 11 on the myNortheastern portal. The campaign period will start April 1.

“We would like to expand access to the resources we have now and use them more efficiently,” said Brown, a second-year math and finance major who currently serves as SGA vice president for academic affairs.

Brown said the pair will primarily focus on accessibility, academic advising and improving SGA relations with other student organizations. Their campaign will be managed by Karl Salvatore, a fourth-year industrial engineering major, and Emily Newell, a first-year political science major.

“We want 24-7 swipe-in access to buildings,” Brown said. “Space is a huge issue on campus, and we really think that this is something that will help alleviate that.”

The team wants to pilot a system of swipes and access shortlists that will give students entrance to all buildings within a complex. As of now, students residing within a housing complex system, such as West Village, cannot enter buildings other than their own apartments, making it cumbersome to find residential assistants and work on group projects.

The priorities of the campaign are derived from the experience of the candidates within and beyond the SGA. Nobile, a second-year psychology and business major who was on the Events and Communications Committee and now the Finance Board, said her work as a peer mentor inspired her to advocate for the outreach of academic resources.

“I have talked to different groups of freshmen, and they just don’t know what’s out there for them,” Nobile said. “Just putting [the resources] out there and getting them to the students and making sure that students have a way to better access the things they are looking for, are really a big part of our platform.”

Brown said he is currently working on “rebranding” TRACE evaluations and NUCareers. He said the SGA leadership will continue expanding experiential learning by creating more co-op opportunities on campus.

Both the Elections Committee and the slate are paying attention to student attitudes toward the SGA administration. Responding to a high rate of “no confidence” responses on the ballots in recent years, the committee will add on the option of “abstain.”

“We did get a high volume of ‘no confidence’ votes last year, which was something that was obviously concerning, and I think that at least for some portion of the vote, it was not understood what a ‘no confidence’ vote meant,” said Casey Waskiewicz, a second-year political science and international affairs combined major and chair of the Elections Committee. “We wanted to add the extension option on the ballot in the hopes that we won’t see as many ‘no confidence’ votes as last year.”

The new slate is aware of this trend and said they plan to make the campaign more accessible and improve relations between the SGA and the student body.

Brown also said he wants to raise school spirit through hockey games and SGA sponsored tailgates.

“Something to really drive students together … We’re always looking for more ideas in maintaining a greater community bond between Northeastern students,” Brown said.

The team is also looking for public opinion and suggestions on key issues. They seek to run a campaign of transparency and accessibility.

“If you have this dire need that isn’t being heard, we want to hear it, and we want to involve it,” Newell said.