Meet Your SGA Executive Vice Presidential Candidates

Anthony Jones

Anthony Jones: On campus issues that are first on my list are parking, advising and students knowing helpful information about their respective colleges. SGA worked diligently this past school year to help with transportation for commuter students and was successful in extending the blue route. This next year, I want us to shift gears and figure out how to open up more parking for commuter students. Advising has been an issue plaguing Georgia State since I’ve been here. As Executive Vice President I will make sure that advising is an issue tackled but the next administration. Finally I want SGA to help in informing students more about the opportunities available in their respective colleges.

Anthony Jones: SGA has made tremendous strides over the past year in its outreach to all parts of the university. To continue help the university increase its student involvement and outreach, SGA should continue its constant advocacy through programming and legislation. Students will become more involved in SGA the more visible SGA becomes. Simultaneously, outreach will increase the more SGA programs.

Anthony Jones: I am passionate and dedicated to Student Government Association and have precious experience in not only leadership but specifically the SGA executive board. As Speaker of the Senate of the current administration, I have had to work closely with the current Executive Vice President over this past year. I have been able to learn much of how Student Government functions and I am confident that I can lead the next Atlanta Campus Student Government Association in the right direction.

Ayesha Iqbal

Ayesha Iqbal: The overall goal is the elevate and sustain the quality of life for every student by addressing key issues such as:

  • Campus safety, specifically harassment
  • Address the conflicting thoughts on the campus carry law
  • Cleaner campus and classrooms
  • Better meal options all around campus
  • Create and encourage a greener and environmentally friendly campus
  • Create more opportunities for students to express their interests and hobbies in ways that can benefit themselves, the students, and the community as a whole

Ayesha Iqbal:

  • Build recommendation/improvement drop boxes around the school where students can leave their questions, comments, and concerns without the hassle
  • Invest in short-term survey methods that will help find and solve problems quicker, especially before they get out of hand
  • Build partnerships with organizations, from businesses to charities, to promote student-community relations and opportunities to work and get involved
  • Encourage attendance to SGA meetings so students will know more about what is and isn’t working, changes, etc.

Anthony Jones: My intention is to be someone students feel comfortable enough to approach to discuss issues and ideas they have that the SGA can address. I am confident in my abilities- if I say I’m going to do something, I will complete the task regardless of the lengths I must go to do it. As the owner of two businesses, I am already able to deal with time management and am efficient at developing strategies that will improve the quality of both the organization and the student’s lives that it serves.

Attush Dhakal

Attush Dhakal: As a Student and a Student Leader, I have enjoyed every single moment at this great university. At the same time, I have learned a lot about our college and our administration. I have the experience of being a Georgia Perimeter College student and Georgia State University student. Hence, I have encountered a lot of issues like any other student. As an Executive Vice President of our SGA, I would like to prioritize issues regarding three key aspects of the student experience: academic, social and career services. During my time as a Senator for Governmental Relations, we encountered issues regarding class availability and lack of pathway and academic advisement. I plan to solve these issues by forming a Perimeter College Academic Concerns Committee comprised of two students, SGA representatives, Professors, Department heads and key people from our college administration. I have already started working on this through conversations with some students and professors. This will help students to have a direct conversation with respective people about their issues. Also, I have been working with Academic Advisement regarding orientation, information sessions and accessibility. We will work in making orientation more informative. Currently as a Senator and part of Dunwoody SGA, we are organizing a town hall where we will be inviting advisers and students to interact about transferring to a four year institution. You can expect incremental change in these types of programs. I will work to be more accessible to students by holding frequent SGA booths where students can talk with SGA representatives about any concerns that they may have. I am very pleased with the work that our current administration has done regarding social problems. Social issues such as mental health and sexual misconduct have been a top priority for President Gray and Dunwoody EVP Calixte. As we have been doing, making resources available to students in need is a must. We invited Dr. Larkin, counselor at GSU, to talk about mental health and challenges regarding student life. We have been partnering with Camila Pham from Student Health Promotions to organize events that will raise awareness in students about abuse of relationship and emotional abuse. As an EVP, I will make sure that these events are continued in an effective manner. Also, I would like to continue to partner with PAC to organize events like Spring Fling, Homecoming Royal Ball and Game Nights that will maintain a great college atmosphere. During my time as Senator, I also found that we need to promote our college resources such as Handshake. Handshake is an online job portal that has thousands of opportunities specifically for GSU students. A lot of our students are work study students who are looking for various opportunities in their field. After our consolidation, students at Perimeter College need to capitalize on fantastic resources that GSU provides. We would like to organize events that will help students polish their resume, work on mock ups and navigate handshake and other GSU resources. My commitment to our students will not be limited to these areas. I will do everything in my power to make sure that students will have a well-rounded, wonderful time here at GSU.

Attush Dhakal: Student life is very challenging, interesting and exciting at the same time. We completely understand and respect student’s dedication in succeeding in college. During my time as Senator, we found success when we conducted mobile office hours, SGA/PAC led events and town halls. All these activities helped us to attract student’s attention. I will also try to collaborate with the Political Science Department, College of Law and other clubs and organizations regarding involvement and research. I will collaborate with our Senators to outreach in student centers, dining halls and other places with high traffic to interact with students. Also, we will continue all the great work that is being done by current administration regarding involvement and outreach. We have very active committee members. Also, our events have had high turnout throughout the semester. Hence, involvement is an issue that we have handled well, and I will continue all the good work in place with some exciting additions.

Attush Dhakal: I have always followed one principle as a Student Leader. I constantly reminding myself that I am a student before anything else and I have been a student at this college for almost three years. This has helped me recall the challenges that I am facing as a student which I share with many other students. At the same time, my experience as Senator of Government Relations and Senior Supplemental Instruction Leader has helped me develop a deeper understanding of our University administration. With the combination of these two factors, not only do I have the knowledge of the problems that students face, I also know how to solve these problems. Also, I have the support of many students, SGA officers, committee members, faculty and I feel obliged to serve them the best way I can. Hence, I feel these reason makes me the best person to be the next Dunwoody SGA EVP.

Christin Smith

Christin Smith: As EVP the issues that are most important are for our students safety. A recent incident at Clarkston that should have never happened when some students’ safety were threatened by an individual that was not a student. This incident along with others, including petty thefts on campus demonstrate the need for tighter security.

Christin Smith: Awareness is a great way to start our outreach. I feel that our students need to be more informed of the opportunities that are always around them on campus. The chance to move up surrounds each of our students everyday through volunteering, scholarships, and even in Student Government. The further the reach of information, he greater the outreach will be from students.

Christin Smith: I am the best person to be EVP because I have been in this role and I know what it takes to lead. I have been through the ups and downs of my role and know that it is a process to endure. It took me a while to learn my role as EVP and I feel it would be better for the school to have an experienced leader continuing this position.

Alexus Seymour

This candidate did not respond to The Signal‘s inquiries by press time.