Student Government executive board candidates participated in a forum moderated by The Lafayette on Thursday. In the race for president — the only one that is competitive — Rep. Alex Brown ‘26 and Vice President Yuko Tanaka ‘26 laid out two contrasting visions for the future.
Brown vouched for visible quality-of-life improvements and strengthening Student Government’s outreach efforts, while Tanaka’s pitch rested on improving Student Government’s internal culture.
“Having a good training, having good communication within Student Government and making it really kind and caring community within would really strengthen our government,” Tanaka said. She said instituting training for Student Government members, which the organization has done in recent years, could improve poor retention rates. Tanaka is already tasked with retention as vice president.
Brown had a different approach.
“To address a lot of root problems that we see, such as member resignation, I think engaging more across both groups — both students and Student Government — is definitely very important,” he said.
To achieve this, Brown proposed diversifying Student Government’s communication avenues, implementing an anonymous suggestion box and working with The Lafayette.
Brown, who joined Student Government nine months ago, was asked why students should vote for him over a candidate with two years of experience, including a one-month stint as acting president.
“Just because someone’s done the job before, it doesn’t mean that someone else can’t also do a good job,” Brown said, making an analogy to Barack Obama assuming the presidency after George W. Bush. “I think I have a lot of good ideas and I think I can demonstrate them.”
Inclusivity Officer Sasha Carter ‘27, who is running unopposed for vice president, said improving Student Government’s internal culture could boost retention rates and draw in new members.
“They can hold each other accountable and continue to push each other to show up to meetings and to continue engagement with Student Government,” Carter said of Student Government members.
Carter also said she would institute more “face-to-face time” with students and collaborate more with student groups.
Parliamentarian Ava Gallia ‘26, who is running unopposed for communications officer, fielded questions on her record as parliamentarian. On several occasions, Gallia has allowed Student Government to violate a transparency measure that prevents meetings from being held unless the agenda is posted 12 hours in advance.
Gallia said she allowed Student Government to hold illegitimate meetings as parliamentarian because of the shortcomings of the current communications officer, Elle Lansing ‘26.
“I hope also that in my role, I won’t have to put the parliamentarian in a position where it’s either the student body or not doing an entire meeting because the agenda was posted two hours late,” Gallia said. “It’ll be a lot easier to address that because that’ll be my actual job.”
Rep. Luna Garces ‘27, who is running unopposed for inclusivity officer, was asked about her plans to increase identity-based club budgets despite a neutrality clause in Student Government’s budget guidelines.
“I think identity-based clubs are kind of left behind at times when it comes to budgeting,” Garces said, without providing evidence. She also said she did not believe identity-based clubs were being discriminated against.
“They deserve the chance to at least be seen as equal as the other clubs,” Garces continued.
Garces was also asked about her plans to institute an anonymous bias incident report form, which Carter, the current inclusivity officer, proposed in March. Garces said her form would work in tandem with the college’s One Pard form.
“Moments of bias are something that could be included in the One Pard, but I think they tend to be Title IX or mental health issues,” Garces said. “Maybe students feel like the One Pard isn’t the right place for that to be reported.”
The candidates, all of whom are members of Greek life, were asked how unaffiliated students would be represented in their administration. Most members of the roughly 35-person audience in the Leopard Lair were members of the presidential candidates’ respective Greek life organizations.
“We need to look at more non-Greek life people,” Brown said. “It’s going to be important for creating a Student Government that represents all the voices on campus, not just the 25% that are in Greek life.”
Tanaka defended the all-Greek incoming executive board.
“We all had a freshman year of not being in Greek life,” Tanaka said. “We’re just people and Greek life shouldn’t really take that from what we are or who we are.”
Voting in the election opened Friday and will close Monday at 11:55 p.m.
