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In his freshman year, William Treloar was hesitant in following his older brother’s footsteps to join Syracuse University’s Student Association.

“I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do this because my brother wants me to,’ but then I just started working with students,” Treloar said. “I started planning events and starting doing advocacy and I was like ‘Brendan, this is the greatest organization. Like, this is so much fun, you get to work with other like-minded people, you get to help students out.”

Although his brother, Brendan Treloar, left SA the following year, Treloar remained active in the organization, and is now set to serve as its president alongside newly-elected executive vice president Yasmin Nayrouz.

The Treloar-Nayrouz campaign won SA’s spring election with 68.34% of the 863 total votes cast between March 27-31 by SU and SUNY ESF’s undergraduate student bodies, according to a Saturday email announcing the election’s results from Board of Elections Chair Otto Sutton.

“It’s been great just speaking with students as I was campaigning, learning about what students want. It’s such an insightful role to me,” said Nayrouz, who will serve as SA’s new executive vice president. “I learned so much and I know that I’m only going to be learning more about myself, and my abilities, about this university and what I can do for the students in this role next year.”

Both Treloar and Nayrouz have held SA leadership roles since their 2020-21 freshman year, during which Treloar served as the director of COVID policy and Nayrouz as the SA’s director of health and wellness.

Even in her first year, Nayrouz began to see the ability SA had to make real change on campus when she worked directly with the Barnes Center at The Arch to address concerns about recreational wait time restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“To see how I could have a genuine impact on this campus as a freshman just empowered me and motivated me to continue Student Association, to continue advocating for what students want,” Nayrouz said.

During her sophomore year and now as a junior, Nayrouz has held the role of vice president of university affairs, in which she said she came to understand the serious commitment required of SA leaders. When she began the planning and execution of Mental Health Awareness Week after assuming the role, she went from working around two hours per week as an assembly member to putting in around 20 hours each week.

Treloar, who began serving as Speaker Pro Tempore and later Speaker of the Assembly by the end of his sophomore year, said it was typical for him to put in far more hours than the 10 weekly hours his position required per SA’s bylaws.

As president and executive vice president, Treloar and Naryouz will be responsible for advocating for a constituency of over 16,000 SU and ESF undergraduate students. Treloar said that the major time commitments as president will be various meetings and ensuring he’s as available as possible to students to hear concerns and address crises.

Throughout his time with the organization, Treloar said his primary concern about the organization has been its lack of interaction with students. He said COVID-19 regulations made it difficult to reach students because common practices like tabling in Schine Student Center weren’t feasible.

“We were trying to decipher what students wanted from campus, but we weren’t talking to them directly,” Treloar said.

During their campaign, Treloar and Nayrouz emphasized their priority of hearing students’ voices directly to ensure that SA is an effective and active advocate for student needs on campus. Treloar said SA has improved their student outreach efforts over the past two years through initiatives like a student body needs survey and No Problem Too Small, a six hour tabling event where students could explain their concerns to an SA assembly member.

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But Treloar believes SA isn’t as involved in the student body as it could be. SA plans to launch the student body needs survey for the second time and reach out to more registered student organizations through Student Association on Tour to further cultivate relationships, he said.

“We want to make sure that we’re going into next year with as much student input as possible so that we can really guide our programming and ethics,” Treloar said.

Nayrouz said some of her other main goals include improving transportation, food access and quality in dining halls and sustainability on campus. As a member of an Egyptian family, Nayrouz said she also hopes to create a stronger and more inclusive environment at SU after noticing she hasn’t seen much Middle Eastern or North African representation on campus.

Treloar also wants to improve food access on campus by allowing students to use meal swipes in Schine again. He estimated students pay approximately $19 per meal swipe. With that cost, students should have full access to food on campus even after the dining halls close, Treloar said.

“You shouldn’t lose all of that access just because other aspects of the university got in the way,” Treloar said.

Nayrouz said she also hopes to continue to expand SA’s relationships with the greater Syracuse community. After working as a Literacy Corps Tutor and volunteering with InterFaith Works of Central New York, she said she’s seen how SU can do more to contribute to the surrounding community. She pointed to SA’s Fall and Spring into Action Community Service Weeks, as well as partnerships with local businesses and Micron as ways she hopes to benefit the university and the community.

As they look to implement their plans for the next school year, Nayrouz and Treloar expressed optimism about SU’s administration listening to their concerns because of the strong relationships SA has developed with SU administration.

“I think early on we want to establish that they — the administration — they are in their roles in order to help and serve students,” Nayrouz said. “Reminding them of that when I meet with them and reminding them that this campus and university wouldn’t be what it is without the students that contribute to it is key to ensuring that they take our concerns seriously.”

Treloar said he’s committed to ensuring that students are involved in every different level of decision-making.

“This is our campus. Decisions shouldn’t be made without us,” Treloar said.

Treloar and Nayrouz are in the process of transitioning into their new roles, with former President David Bruen and Executive Vice President Adia Santos both set to graduate in May. Nayrouz said the pair will begin reviewing applications for SA’s cabinet, which close this Friday, in the coming weeks.

Treloar said he wants the students he represents to see that as SA president, he is fighting to make their campus better.

“I believe Student Association has the ability to do so much good,” Treloar said. “And while I am nervous that I — obviously any president would be nervous — would let the student body down, I genuinely believe with the team that we’re building, Yasmin and I will be able to do an incredible amount of good for this campus.”

Published on April 6, 2023 at 12:34 am

Contact Kendall: kaluther@syr.edu