OUSC election: Meet the candidates
Election season is underway at Oakland University as many hopeful students have begun their respective campaigns for positions in the OU Student Congress. Read on to learn more about the candidates running for executive board and legislative seats.
Presidential/vice presidential slates
There are three presidential/vice presidential slates running in the 2023 OUSC election.
The first slate of candidates consists of presidential candidate Josef Gocjaj, vice presidential candidate Amir Mitchell, speaker candidate Ethan Lehman-Pace and legislator candidate Jimena Garcia.
The Gojcaj-Mitchell Slate is running on the campaign slogan “Stronger Together,” a succinct description of their main priority; uplifting the student body by improving their college experience. The candidates intend to support student organizations by listening to student feedback and acting upon concerns.
“When we communicate with organizations, we are consistently hearing complaints about the Student Activities Funding Board’s confusing or potentially misapplied rules and regulations,” Gojcaj said in his presidential platform statement. “To mitigate problems and barriers for student organizations, we are committed to reforming the SAFB by-laws to further ensure transparency, clarity and funding for student clubs and events.”
Learn more about the Gojcaj-Mitchell Slate by following their campaign Instagram @stronger.together.oakland.
The second slate of candidates consists of presidential candidate Murryum Farooqi, vice presidential candidate Maris Ferguson and speaker candidate Emma Garrett.
The Farooqi-Ferguson Slate is running on the campaign slogan “Let’s Keep Moving Forward.” The all-female group is running on numerous initiatives, promising to protect students’ wallets, rights, voices and especially the health and safety of all Golden Grizzlies.
“With extensive experience comes extensive knowledge,” the Farooqi Ferguson platform statement reads. “We know what works, what’s realistic and what will keep us moving forward.”
Stay up-to-date with the Farooqi-Ferguson Slate by following their campaign Instagram @farooqiferguson.
The third presidential slate includes Joshua Kobus. The Kobus Slate is running its campaign on sustainability, financial support and ethics.
One of Kobus’s major initiatives is championing a clear separation between SAFB and OUSC to eliminate conflict of interest concerns in regard to student organization financial requests.
“I would like to separate the funding board (SAFB) from the OUSC to ensure that no student organizations have financial favor at the expense of others,” Kobus said. “All student organizations deserve perfectly fair funding.”
To learn more about each candidate’s goals and initiatives, read the presidential/vice presidential election platforms by clicking this link.
Legislative Candidates
There are sixteen candidates running in the 2023 OUSC election. These candidates include Alex Verzillo, Matthew Staley, Darnell Sumpter Jr., Tyler Wykhuis, J. Cooper Smith, Lucas Sinistaj, Mohammed Salman, Ryan Olds, Victoria Ouding, Travis Palmer, Lance Markowitz, Daniela Meson De La Fuente, Nick Mumby, Jason Jimenez, Meron Eeso and Zohab Ali.
To learn more about each candidate’s goals and initiatives, read the legislator election platforms by clicking this link. Votes will be cast for all positions from April 3-5.
For more information on OUSC elections, please contact Elections Commission Chair Chiara Nava via email at [email protected]. For timely updates on all election matters, follow OUSC on their Instagram @ouscofficial.
The • Mar 23, 2023 at 4:47 PM
The lies and misinformation in this comment section being allowed is worrisome.
Yousef • Mar 26, 2023 at 8:46 AM
What is more worrisome is your implied call to action to censor opinions even if nonsensical. The words misinformation disinformation and malinformation are all nonsensical newspeak to control language and thoughts. It is enough to say that something is true or not true. These newspeak terms will be used by CISA to label free thinking Americans as terrorist allowing for the whole suite of shitty 2001 legislation to be enacted upon us. I am talking the patriot act FISA etc.
CISA actually leaked a memo on this topic. I would link it but OP doesn’t allow links.
I don’t want you to be arrested, beaten, enslaved, or killed, when you inevitably end up in the wrong side of the political orthodoxy. Stand up and fight against this newspeak.
mesef • Mar 28, 2023 at 1:57 PM
Is this a prank??? There no way you are making college affairs this deep!!
Marian • Mar 23, 2023 at 12:25 PM
I’m sorry, but Maris wants to be VP after her disastrous year leading SAFB? I’m not sure “extensive experience” is the flex she thinks it is. She’s caused irreparable harm to dozens of student orgs on campus. No thanks. We don’t need more of this nonsense.
ShameOnU • Mar 23, 2023 at 6:00 PM
This is hard to believe considering the majority of student organization endorsements have been in support of Maris slate. Why would organizations endorse someone if they cause irreparable harm… oh wait I forgot your are just lying for political gain.
org leader • Mar 23, 2023 at 7:44 PM
as a student org leader I’ve never had trouble with funding, you just have to follow the rules correctly lol.
A Concerned Student • Mar 24, 2023 at 2:21 PM
“org leader” sounds real believable.
Somebody in an org here, heard countless horror stories with these confusing and unusual rules. Both of these read as plant accounts #tbh.
Very concerned student • Mar 28, 2023 at 1:51 PM
“A concerned student” reads as a plant account lol. How amusing!
Jonas P. • Mar 22, 2023 at 11:37 AM
That two slates of candidates (!) are highlighting problems with SAFB and the Executive Board should tell you everything you need to know about the current state of affairs in student government.
As currently constituted, SAFB is horrendously dysfunctional, and this is compounded by incompetent leadership that seems to delight in denying funding to student orgs. Despite assurances to the contrary, there’s virtually no transparency or accountability surrounding the funding decision-making process, and appeals never succeed.
And President Romano continues to exert inappropriate influence over the process. He showed up in our appeal hearing despite having no need to be there and insisted that our request be declined. He uses his authority to hash out petty grievances like some insecure tyrant. It’s disgraceful. And sad.
Time to clean house!
Fax • Mar 23, 2023 at 6:30 PM
idk who needs to hear this but President Romano is not running, despite your clear wishing he was. Spouting lies and nonsense is a sign of weakness. It speaks to those who have ulterior motivations and are trying to win an election. The majority of the student body will see right through this, they know all the good OUSC has done: from east campus-to menstrual products, they have delivered and delivered again.
Objective? • Mar 22, 2023 at 9:15 AM
The first slate seems to have more coverage in this article than the other two. In fact, when you compare the first slates coverage (in words) in this article to the second slates, there’s ~55% more words discussing the first one… what happened?
anon • Mar 22, 2023 at 8:47 PM
I see that the Presidential-VP slates platforms are attached in the article..if you click on this document, you will see that the Farquooi-Ferguson slate has a much larger statement than the other two slates! That might be a good resource if you’d like to learn about the initiatives of all the slates! 🙂