Editor’s note: The Daily Orange Editorial Board interviewed the three sets of presidential and vice presidential candidates running for the Student Association’s 62nd session. In an effort to provide transparency in the editorial board’s endorsement decision, The D.O. has published the transcript of each interview. The following interview has been edited for clarity.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board: What do you believe are the biggest issues currently facing student life at Syracuse University, and how do you plan to address them?

Serena Fazal: The thing is, segregation on campus between groups are so great, such as heritage groups like Caribbean Student Association, Arab Student Association, Dominican Student Association. Greek councils like Interfraternity Council and the Professional Fraternity Council, and University 100, University Union. So we feel like a lot of the campus is very segregated and a lot of the people on campus don’t really know about other organizations and what they stand for, so I think that’s one big issue.

John Jankovic: Yeah, and especially when the university markets itself as “one university.” It’s really almost superficial or not necessarily the case, especially to students who kind of see that every day. We tend to fall kind of in our niche or groups that we don’t necessarily want to explore, bridge into. It can get uncomfortable, and kind of what motivated our campaign, especially the diversity and dialogue platforms, was this idea of being comfortable with being uncomfortable and kind of bridging those gaps. And making sure, like again, we put a bridge because we do kind of see these segregation niches on campus, and we want to kind of break that divide.

The D.O. Editorial Board: And what would you say are three tangible things you both would want to accomplish during your tenure, in the case that you’re elected, to improve student life?

J.J.: Yeah so, one thing that I’m currently working on, and also something we’re running on, is this international awareness organization. So I’ve been hired by (Hendricks Chapel Dean Brian Konkol) currently to establish one. This past winter break we had the Puerto Rico disaster relief trip, which I also helped organize and we both participated in it. But we came back to campus and we realized relief — it could go past relief — so what we’re going to do, we are going to look past relief, we are going toward awareness as well as development. And kind of like, almost use that as almost a means to build this understanding, build this comfort with where people come from and where people are going kind of thing. And hopefully, unite under that one university. Because if you actually expose yourself to these cultures, these communities where students call home and things are happening there. Things are happening where you’re from, you can kind of bring that mentality and that change and that passion back to campus and — make sure you know — now you understand like why that student is who they are, who they’re hanging out with and hopefully we can work together and kind of unite them. So that’s one thing. Probably the coalition is another one of our platforms. Do you want to talk about that?

S.F.: Yeah, so basically what we want to do is we want to have a monthly, biweekly conversation between delegates from between each RSO, like I stated from the various RSOs. And just have a conversation about you know, this is what my organization is, this is what we’re about, this is how we help the community and this is how you can get involved. And then basically like we’re one university, so we just want to support each other and we’re hoping that various organizations will come and help each other. So with NALFO, the National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations, … they support the other organizations’ events. So let’s say if my sorority, we have an event going on, our whole week, so various organizations from NALFO will come and support. So what I had in mind is to have various RSOs — not just in NALFO — but organizations come and support each other, just to show that we are united, we are one university and we are all there for each other.

J.J.: Yeah, and it goes back to past just the Greek council, like heritage groups, identity groups, even the big marketing strategies like Orange Seeds, FYP, U100. All of those groups have a say. Hopefully, we can find a way to have a seat at the table where everyone is represented. And then thirdly, I would characterize as lots of little things, I think we want to do a lot of little things and hopefully quality. Like office hours on the Quad. That is so easy, so tangible, you know, things like that. So if we just do these little things that overall work toward more awareness, more understanding of what SA does, who SA is, their presence on campus and the impact they can make. Again, that’s like the Puerto Rico trip opened our eyes to the impact they can make, and that’s why we’re sitting in these chairs today. So hopefully we can inspire other students to do the same.

The D.O. Editorial Board: What experiences have you had that would help you lead SA?

J.J.: So I’ve been on SA for three semesters now. I’m an assembly rep for the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as historian, basically documenting the history of the organization. I’m also vice president of Democracy Matters, which focuses on money and politics, kind of bridging those divides, helping students, fostering, molding student leaders. And I’m also the Class of 2020 student rep on the alumni board here. So basically what that does is I sit on the board of directors at the Alumni Association and we talk about what my graduating class, our input on the board. And like overall, philanthropy and marketing strategy because on the committee, philanthropy is my committee. And I’m a member of Phi Alpha Delta, the pre-law frat.

S.F.: I am part of the Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi Sorority, Incorporated and I am the vice president. So a lot of what we do on campus and a lot of other communities (is) empower women, empower Latina women, and we empower all types of people to prosper and strive for their best and do the best that they can do in the community and with their education, their professional life, everything. So, basically what I want to do is use what I learned from my sorority and take it back to the university campus and empower students to strive for their best. In addition, I’m also the historian of Alpha Chi Sigma, which is a professional chemistry fraternity. So we do a lot of community service throughout the community and on our campus, and I feel like that helps me because I am the voice of the outside perspective. So like John said, he is involved in SA but I am not. So, I am able to bring an outside perspective to what SA has to offer and show SA how students perceive Student Association and how we can make it better from an outside perspective and how the students who aren’t involved SA can make a change.

The D.O. Editorial Board: And what are some areas — going off of that — that you would say need to be improved with SA, and how would you address them?

J.J.: I just think marketing, promotion, kind of like getting the word out there. I think marketing strategies could be — again, depending on what the event may be, whether it’s meetings or something, one of the committees we’re putting on just a larger initiative — just how you market it, how you arrange each thing to maybe a niche, or if its a meeting, frame it to the whole student body. So just kind of developing these strategies and plans, see what works, see what doesn’t. And constantly, actively change that to mold to the student body, student experience kind of thing. Some things we have in mind for that is literally putting an assembly rep in a dorm. So for move-in, it would be so cool if there was someone there welcoming you. If you see this person is from SA, you’re like, “What’s SA?” Hopefully this kid is like, “Oh, this is SA,” and then this creates this ripple effect — like grassroots almost. And hopefully put the name SA out there.

S.F.: And one thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of students don’t realize that the committees on Student Association — that students who aren’t involved in SA can be on those committees. So for example, the public relations committee. There are so many public relations majors that want this experience and want experience in their major not just in internships, but they want to be involved in organizations where they did public relations. I think just getting the word out that there are opportunities for students who aren’t involved in SA can really have a say in what’s going on on campus.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Particularly as it pertains to advocating for student needs, how would you approach the relationship with the chancellor and those people like that?

J.J.: I think there’s a stigma that these are very authoritative, scary figures. I think that people have their own perceptions on them and how to kind of adjust them. But I’ve had experience with them. They’re very down-to-earth, they’re very genuine, they’re there to meet, they’re there to help the students, hear the students out. Again, it could get political at times, but you know just kind of navigating that, understanding that you’re doing your part and I guess pushing them. We understand what we are being elected to — and that is to advocate for students — but there are respectful ways, there are diplomatic ways to go toward that, so, just understand who you’re talking to but also understand what you’re there to do.

The D.O. Editorial Board: What evidence do you see, like what is there to come to a conclusion that the administration here really cares about student needs?

J.J.: Through my own experience with Dean Konkol, he’s been so receptive. I could just stop in and say “hi” kind of thing. You just have to build those relationships and understand that they’re people, too. There’s that perception that they’re scary authority figures, but they’re in a position to help, and it’s on us to push and to do that.

The D.O. Editorial Board: How would you describe the SU administration in three words?

J.J.: In three words … hmm.

S.F.: Empowering.

J.J.: Empowering. I think that there’s potential. Potential would be another good word. I think Dean Konkol is definitely empowering with his appointment and stuff. With potential, I think there’s faculty that goes unnoticed — administration, excuse me. Unnoticed that their roles on the campus — what they can really bring or do or enact. And then finally, I would have to go with … I don’t know. I don’t have this limit or idea of a word. They’re very broad in terms of how they can — like, you don’t know enough about them. Exactly who’s where, what they do, where they’re located.

The D.O. Editorial Board: So like undefined?

J.J.: Undefined or like, not even inaccessible. Just like, who are you?

The D.O. Editorial Board: Not very clear, not very transparent.

J.J.: Yeah. Like what is approval, you know what I mean?

The D.O. Editorial Board: And then to continue on the administration line, would you urge the university administration to allocate Invest Syracuse funds to specific programs or initiatives on campus?

J.J.: Yeah, I think definitely mental health and wellness. (SA President James Franco and Vice President Angie Pati) have done a great job on that, kind of continue those conversations we have, ideas of our own on how we would hopefully implement that, academics, research. Keep up that R1 status. And just making sure it goes back to the students, whatever they need. We can use our platform to figure out what that is. But also, we were elected to this position, so see ourselves what we see is lacking and where those funds could best help the student experience on campus.

S.F.: And also incorporating ways for the money to be used to get more students involved on campus. There are a lot of students who aren’t involved, and there are ways that they can get involved, and there are opportunities that they can know about — that they should know about.

J.J.: Even just resources, too. A lot of students don’t know where the LGBT Resource Center is.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Kind of going off of that, how do you plan to represent students whose experiences you can’t relate to? Whether that’s their gender, sexuality, race, financial background, ability.

J.J.: We put in our platform the coalition idea. That would definitely be a working idea because we bring this up to students on the campaign trail, and we’re like, “What do you think?” and they’re like, “How am I going to be represented?” We went to ESF and they were like, “Where are we going to be on there?” It’s going to be hard to see how many seats, how many groups, who will be there so that we can be sure that we are bringing these conversations. These RSOs or delegates — whatever they may be called — are taking these back to the students, bringing their inputs and bringing it back to the table and saying, this is the majority opinion of all students. Because again, these dialogues, these constant dialogues. But also we’d take it upon ourselves to go out, talk to students individually and gauge the opinion ourselves.

S.F.: And what John said about reaching out to our community, the campus with office hours on the Quad or like meet your reps on the Hendricks (Chapel) steps. We want to take the initiative of coming out to the community ourselves and reaching out to them and getting their input and helping them out rather than them going all of the way down to the (SA office in the basement of the Schine Student Center). But really coming out and reaching out to them instead of them coming to us.

J.J.: Another thing is we would hope this model of what we hope Student Association to be would hopefully emulate into the university or the administration’s model of them coming to us, them reaching out to us rather than “you know where to find me” kind of thing. … That even goes for our website. We, SA, just converted our website to the template the university uses. It’s not technologically accessible to people who are blind or may not necessarily, you know just all different ways of accessibility which is another thing we’re running on. Just again, these constant conversations.

The D.O. Editorial Board: So earlier you brought up the issue of segregation. What specifically are you alluding to? I think it could be interpreted a couple of ways. Do you mean across living situations (locations) or student organizations, across academic paths? What exactly is your thinking there, and then what are the consequences, and what would you seek to work with to address this?

S.F.: I think a lot of it is between the RSOs and the various organizations on campus. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing that they’re segregated, but RSOs don’t know about each other. There’s just a lack of knowledge, lack of communication between each organization. If we’re one community, we can all support each other, with the various events that they go to or the various events that they host or just supporting each other whatever they need. I’m sorry, what was your second question?

The D.O. Editorial Board: As the leaders of SA, are there any particular groups within the institution — whether that be leadership groups, administrators — is there anywhere you would go to sort of address some of these issues?

J.J.: Just in all forms like again, South Campus and Main Campus — even the title, just like South Campus. It’s very divided, and again I guess there’s physical restraints there. There’s no groups in particular, it just feels like a campus thing. And it feels uncomfortable and unsettling to us when it’s one university that we’re branding ourselves as but that isn’t the case.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Is there anything you think SA could do with the funding it has available? The Finance Board delegates money to student groups. Is there anything down that avenue that you think could be done to address the issues of segregation?

J.J.: I think with the funding, we already see that. It’s very limited funds, but some organizations don’t even know that SA gets funding. Let’s just start there, because that’s already a disadvantage. And those groups may historically be of a certain race or so. …  And making sure organizations know — this is the budgeting process. Like this is how you do it, this is what you can request, what you cannot. But also, we’ve run into issues, like does UU get this money for this concert or does (National Pan-Hellenic Council), and how does that look? Just optics, but making sure this isn’t a vendetta or this isn’t us supporting this but not that. I’ll give you an example right now. The (Block Party) lineup was just announced. My friend, she is in a Panhellenic sorority, and she sent me a Snapchat and it goes, “Block Party is trash.” And I said, “Why?” And she goes, “I don’t like these artists.” And I just said, “How do you think people felt for the past three concerts?” There’s been controversies, so again, we’re bridging these divides, we’re going in the right direction, but how do we unite? So, that’s what this campaign is really focused on — uniting and making sure we aren’t having these rifts, making sure everyone is included. We’re trying to be, but it starts with a conversation, it starts with dialogue.

The D.O. Editorial Board: What do you think James and Angie have done well? And why?

J.J.: They are just such supportive people, they hear every idea. Without Angie, (the Puerto Rico relief trip) wouldn’t have happened last year. She put me in contact with the right parties at Hendricks Chapel. Personally speaking, I owe them so much, but they’re always receptive, always responding.

S.F.: And they actually want to make a change. You hear presidents that run for Student Association on other campuses. Like I’ve heard a couple examples — they just do it for the name, and they don’t actually want to make a change. They just do it for the resume or they do it because of the popularity or what have you. But, for them, they actually want to make a change. They actually go out of their way to start initiatives and make a change on campus.

J.J.: Also, I feel like they revamped the Student Association in a better direction. I think that’s a long time coming. I don’t think we’ll solve it, should we be elected, I don’t think whoever will be elected may solve it. But we’ve definitely come a long way. When I first joined, I almost wanted to quit — it was that bad. So I just, James and Angie were that light, that kind of beacon of hope. Again, I was happy with the decision the student body made, and I was happy with my vote. I voted for them.

The D.O. Editorial Board: What do you think did not work well with this administration? What would you like to improve?

J.J.: Just, I think they took a lot on themselves. I think SA has a lot of potential, a lot of power to delegate and kind of give roles. For example, I’m on the diversity affairs committee. We did the March for Our Lives bus trip, and I think it was (The Daily Orange) who reached out to Angie, but it was Diasia (Robinson) who put it together. Diasia is the diversity affairs chair. But I think it’s just kind of promoting all representation of the student body, like James and Angie were elected, but just like promoting the meaningful work that everyone is doing in the organization. And again, they take on so much, and they did it all so great, but we have so much untapped potential in this organization. There’s 50 of us. We don’t go there to see what James and Angie can do. We go there to see what we can do and where we can go to do these things.

S.F.: And there’s a lot of room for delegation as well, so like John was saying, they did take a lot on themselves, and a lot of it can be delegated to the various committees, the assemblies, what have you.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Do you think SU has a responsibility to support the greater Syracuse community? If so, to what extent?

J.J.: I think it definitely does. When we throw around these words like “the bubble” and “the Hill,” it promotes a very elitist idea. People don’t want to go off campus when technically Marshall (Street) is. It’s just like, breaking those ideas of what off campus is like, just assimilating. Like, we have these debates with the Interstate 81 bridge — the recent construction there, what happened there. I think that we have a community engagement community for a reason. SA and SU itself does have a responsibility to reach out to that community. The nature of which, it’s very hard to — I guess it’s a fine line because there’s no concrete line to draw about how far we can go, but something should be done at least. Whether that’s enlightening, empowering, inspiring the youth of the community to actually attend college. Coming from New York City, that’s something that changed my life. Where I grew up, like I didn’t think I could have the opportunities — look where I’m sitting now. I just think using our potential, using our power, assimilating the community and not making this idea of “the bubble” or “the Hill” and kind of break some up a little.

S.F.: I think there are, there have been some positive initiatives on campus. For example, Show Day I think, I wasn’t able to take part in it because I had too many classes but what I heard, the students — the younger students — they had a lot of fun learning about the campus, learning what the students do on campus and what university life is about. So, I think a lot of it should be bringing the youth in and teach the youth that they have the opportunity to go to university and get an education and make something of themselves.

J.J.: I think especially considering the parts they do come from and sort of the stigmas and the outcomes of what they’ve seen happen in those communities.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Could you name three specific projects you would pursue to improve physical accessibility on campus?

J.J.: First would be gender-neutral bathrooms. So that would be incorporating more of those on campus. One big goal we’d love to do is have them in the Carrier Dome because people in the Dome, anyone who goes in the men’s restroom here they have those — almost troughs. It’s gross.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Is that like a urinal?

J.J.: It’s very uncomfortable. It’s like a long rectangular bucket. So just imagine. You know, just making sure all people have comfortable spaces on this campus. Like, the fact that there is an app and a map online of where gender-neutral bathrooms are on campus is not right. It should just be common knowledge.

S.F.: Especially in the bigger hubs like Schine Student Center and Bird Library. That’s where 10,000 students pass through a day, Schine Student Center. It is a big hub, and a lot of students do pass by, and they should feel comfortable in their own university to use these restrooms. It is their university, it is their right to feel comfortable because they are paying so much money.

J.J.: Yeah, and another thing we’ve heard — going off those bathrooms, is sanitary dispensaries. So diabetic students who have to check their insulin levels or students going through transition period taking testosterone estrogen shots, just giving them a proper way to dispose of that and any waste material that needs to be properly disposed. That kind of goes off of sustainability and making sure we’re not leaving gross things on campus. Like, there’s a place for this and there’s a place for that. You can do whatever you need to do personally, comfortably. And then campus and buildings should all up to (Americans with Disabilities Act) code. But we need to exceed that …  If buildings themselves are up to code, some resources or things within them aren’t, so like the … TVs near the elevator in Bird Library are not at a certain height standard, and those have touchscreen capability, so should those ever be converted to touchscreen, making sure that they’re the right height to do so. And if we don’t bring that up, who will when they do become touchscreens or whenever they might. Just really small things, and we want to go out of our way so that students don’t have to.

The D.O. Editorial Board: For you, what’s the line between international advocacy, disaster relief and awareness, and white saviorism or poverty tourism?

J.J.: When we went to Puerto Rico this was a big debate.

S.F.: Yeah.

J.J.: We kind of got heated over it. We throw the term “white saviorism” and stuff but people find the technicalities — “Well, I’m not white.” And it gets me so mad. But we want to make sure that what we are doing is meaningful and impacting and it lasts, so yeah, … the students came back to campus, got a little ahead of ourselves, created this organization called Orange Relief, and we have this passion and it had to be reformed. We want to set a foundation of doing this right. So, … right now through my role of being hired by Dean Konkol to create this organization, we want to make sure we are setting a good foundation to address those problems. We want to make sure that there is no voluntourism or no savior complex by putting action plans in place and tangible things that these students could do before they are on these trips, while they’re there and after. So if you’re taking a video, you’re not taking a video to look like, “Look at me, helping a woman down a wheelchair ramp,” you’re taking a video of, this is what people are living in, this is for you to open up your eyes and be like, we need to do something about this. Students who go here call that home. And look where you are now kind of thing. So we want to make sure, again, that we set a good foundation, a good precedent to avoid all of that.

S.F.: And a lot of it — for Puerto Rico, it’s a lot of students’ home here. It’s not just about being a white savior, it’s about helping students who live in those communities, it’s about supporting those students who are affected by it because that is what they call home and they are affected by it, so it’s just about supporting each other and helping one another in any way possible.

J.J.: And that’s so fundamental to our campaign but also us as people — just helping, and we hope that never comes off as wrong or with ulterior motives because we strive ourselves and we drove this campaign to be genuine and transparent and real, and we hope that manifests.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Is there anything in particular that you think sets you apart from the other candidates?

J.J.: This bond.

S.F.: Yeah.

J.J.: The bond is like no other.

S.F.: So we met before freshman year, a couple of days before freshman year started, so last year in August.

J.J.: 2016.

S.F.: August 2016.

J.J.: Around 12:30 p.m. Physics Building.

S.F.: I think we work very well together. We both have strengths and weaknesses, and together — you know his strength is my weakness, my strength is his weakness. We kind of just fit together. We work off each other. What he needs help with, what I need help with. We kind of just work with each other, help each other, and a lot of it is communication. If I think he’s being too much, I tell him he’s being too much. I think a lot of it is communication because you can’t be productive if you’re not communicating. If something’s wrong, how am I going to feel good about the work that I’m doing if I can’t say what I’m feeling? So, a lot of it, we communicate really well, we work really well together, we’re in classes together, we know each other’s work ethic, and it just kind of fits perfectly together.

J.J.: And it goes past that. Even personally, we just have our own stories, our own backgrounds, but we were kind of raised with the same ideas, the same values, the same things that we hold close to our hearts. And that manifests into what we want to do here. We want to promote that and bring it to the community. We’re two halves of a whole. I can’t even put words to it — like she’s literally my person.

The D.O. Editorial Board: You’ve mentioned supporting accountability and transparency in SA. Your team opted not to take part in our independent debate, which our editorial board will discuss on Sunday. Why? The motivating factor behind that debate is reinforcing accountability and transparency, so how do you respond?

J.J.: I think we showed how transparent we were in how we addressed the situation. We were very honest in the prior commitments we had, and we did try our best and maintain constant communication of how we were trying to accommodate this. We were, however, in contact with both the SA leadership — so James and (Sophia Faram, chair of SA’s board of elections and membership committee) — as well as the other campaigns, and we all kind of … we’re not comfortable, especially with the circumstances of how the debate would be addressed — like the debate itself.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Can you go into specifics there? Because I know we talked to James, and he was OK with everything on our end. So what specifics are you referring to?

J.J.: So again, respect the leadership, but the bylaws say that an organization needs to put in a letter to Sophia a week in advance, and again, (The D.O. is) independent, which is great for media, but CitrusTV is not, so we were not comfortable with that. Especially if those are rules that we want to uphold and defend and protect and serve to you know, the community.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Would you continue the Euclid Shuttle pilot program, if elected? If so, why? Is there any indication that students are using the service?

J.J.: So I think that the Euclid Shuttle is a really good tool, especially when you hear of some of the things that go on, especially concerning safety, people do feel safe having the means to get around.

S.F.: Especially so late at night.

J.J.: I do think, however, if it is going to be continued, it needs to be implemented and make sure it’s backed by some data or tangible proof that it should be. We would take it upon ourselves to make sure that it is being utilized, it’s not a waste of money. We want to be sure that we’re efficient, productive as a Student Association in collaboration with the comptroller and that funds the Office of Student Activities as well as the administration. This was a big effort to put together. We don’t want to discredit it right away, but we want to make sure we’re at least upholding, that it’s tangible and it’s actually being used. We would definitely try to find ways to implement that and hopefully expand it. If students need it at a different time, if students need it a different day, it’s a working idea.

The D.O. Editorial Board: I just want to follow up with that debate. Because I was unfamiliar with the bylaw, I was wondering if you could explain it.

J.J.: Section 5.6.6 of the Student Association bylaws says that an organization must send a letter of intent after contacting the campaigns at least a week prior to planning of the debate for Sophia, the board of elections and membership chair, to approve. So it was a Monday that this was brought up to our attention for the debate Sunday, so that was six days. And again, we apologize because we misinterpreted, we understood. But The D.O. is not an RSO.

The D.O. Editorial Board: I get that technicality. Why is that one day — I know this is the technical bylaw — but if you have James saying it is OK, I guess do you really think the spirit of that rule is to prevent a debate like this that is technically six days in advance rather than seven? A debate that’s an independent media debate. Do you really think the spirit of the rule is to prevent that from happening?

J.J.: Well, I just think the rule was put in place — again, this is up to interpretation — but it is a rule that said …  like, I’m not trying to get off on a technicality. That is not the case at all. What we thought was, this is the rule that was passed — not by James but by (the SA) assembly, and the assembly is representative of the student body. So again, if we talk about this derivative power, this idea of representing the student body, that is what the student body in theory said. So we cannot sit here in good conscience and go up there and debate if we are literally almost in violation of a bylaw. We cannot serve in good conscience doing that, as well. Because we hold ourselves to a higher standard.

The D.O. Editorial Board: So for next year’s planning, we’ve run a total of three editorial boards now, I’d say, maybe in the past two months, that this debate was planned. Especially since last year we made clear we wanted to make it into an annual event. Would you say that wasn’t enough promotion at all? Or that you weren’t made aware that this was going to be happening?

J.J.: Well, it’s not that I was going to be made aware, but there was no —

The D.O. Editorial Board: Like a formal letter?

J.J.: There should have been, yeah. Because I asked (D.O. News Editor Sam Ogozalek) who reached out to me and our campaign about it. We asked for details, and I got them later in the day. Once … the other two campaigns signed on, we kind of went back and did our own research into it. Again, through my capacity and the Student Association, I just wanted to make sure that we were upholding ourselves to a higher standard, so we wanted to make sure that it wasn’t breaking any rules or anything like that. And we wanted to do it, but we wanted to do it in good conscience, and we personally could not do so.

The D.O. Editorial Board: What are your plans, if you are not elected?

J.J.: Still involved (with SA), I think.

S.F.: Like what John said about the disaster relief, I think both of us want to become more involved and create an organization that actually does disaster relief. Even if we don’t get elected, it doesn’t matter, we’re happy with whoever gets elected because we understand that the main goal of each campaign is to benefit the student body. So we’re happy with whatever happens.

J.J.: I’m an assembly representative for the College of Arts and Sciences. I’ll definitely stay in the Student Association, consider maybe joining Cabinet, but again, I have so much going on. And there’s so much going on on campus. But this, SA, is something that saved me. So, I think I owe it to the campus and I owe it to myself that, at least, I hopefully serve.

The D.O. Editorial Board: Are there any last questions? Anything you two would like to add?

J.J.: Just vote. Make sure people vote. That is the most important thing. There are two referendums on the ballot for the revised constitution as well as NYPIRG (the New York Public Interest Research Group) that go on the ballot every year. I just want to make sure people are engaged and know what’s going on on their campus.

The Daily Orange Editorial Board serves as the voice of the organization and aims to contribute the perspectives of students to discussions that concern Syracuse University and the greater Syracuse community. The editorial board’s stances are determined by a majority of its members. You can read more about the editorial board here. Are you interested in pitching a topic for the editorial board to discuss? Email opinion@dailyorange.com.

Published on April 9, 2018 at 12:14 am

Contact: opinion@dailyorange.com