Julian Herzing-Burkard, a third-year international business major, officially confirmed his candidacy for student body president Feb. 17 alongside his executive vice president, or EVP, candidate Dylan Lee, a second-year data science and economics combined major.
The campaign — made official after Herzing-Burkard obtained the signatures of 2% of the student body, or 474 signatures — marks the first bid for the 2025-26 president of the Student Government Association, or SGA. The campaign period for the election will begin March 9.
In an interview with The Huntington News, Herzing-Burkard said he plans to focus his student body president campaign on advocating to improve students’ Northeastern experience.
“We really want to use the position as an advocate solution and really work on projects that affect the whole student body,” Herzing-Burkard said.
Specifically, Herzing-Burkard and Lee’s slate plans to focus on increasing student connection and connectivity, working with university administration to open up more spaces for studying during finals and improving the experience of N.U.in students matriculating to Boston.
Lee studied abroad in Scotland as part of the N.U.in program in 2023 and shared how this experience is influencing the campaign.
“I knew the people that I went to Scotland with, but it’s very hard to break into other groups on campus because they were already established, and just being able to plan more events for [N.U.in students], trying to get them more engaged on campus, is a really big goal of mine,” Lee said.
To increase connection on campus, Herzing-Burkard said he is looking into creating an app or other form of media that would act as a central location to find everything that’s going on at Northeastern.
Herzing-Burkard and Lee came together partly because of their previous experiences in different sections of the student government.
“I’ve always been involved in campus advocacy through SGA, through the campus affairs division,” Herzing-Bukard said. “And I will just say I’ve always known Dylan to run a very tight ship in his division. And I always thought he was a very smart thinker and a very good leader.”
Each of their separate experiences and skill sets complements the traditional division of responsibilities between the student body president and EVP, Lee said. The role of EVP has substantially changed since last year, when the role was restructured after an EVP stepped down in October 2023.
“[Student body president] is written to be an outward-facing role, and traditionally, in the past, has been a very outward-facing role, whereas the executive vice president role is much more inward-facing and kind of much more on getting the day to day done,” Lee said.
Armaan Sarao, a third-year media and screen studies and English combined major, has worked alongside Herzing-Burkard since his first year when they both served as SGA senators and worked in SGA’s campus affairs division.
“Julian does a fantastic job, even currently as the vice president of campus affairs, to just bring out the best in people by constantly communicating, constantly checking in,” Sarao said. “I feel like as a student body president, you want someone who’s always willing to reach out to students, understand their issues, get to know them personally. And Julian does a fantastic job of that.”
Herzing-Burkard said he would prioritize listening to students and encourage students to reach out if they feel like there is something they want to be addressed.
“We’re really excited to work on the priorities we outlined, but the whole purpose of student government and us in this fashion is to hear from students,” Herzing-Bukard said. “We are open to adding new priorities and stuff based on what comes up and what needs the student body recognizes. … We’re a friendly face. Please reach out to us. Please get involved in any of our committees, Student Government. Personally, I’m very excited for next year, that is if we win.”
