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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
the student voice since 1960
FRANCESCA BOSTON lifestyles editor
With the student government election next week, presidential candidates and their vice presidential candidates are on the campaign trail. Ugo Eleonu and Jared Jess are running together for president and vice president, with the slogan “Ready to Serve.” The pair said their experience both in and out of student government are their greatest strengths. “We are ready to serve. We are older students that have had a little more experience and we can bring things to the table that others may not be able to. And the good thing is, we are ready to serve and share that knowledge,” Jess said. Elenou, a junior mechatronics and robotic major, is running as president after serving in various capacities on student government for the past two years. He has served as a senator and an executive member, and is currently serving as the financial officer. He said he is running because he believes that student government is a fundamental part of the school that is often underlooked and he has the ability to make a difference in the school. “There’s a lot I have to offer based on the previous work I have done with student government, I feel there’s still much more work that needs to be done. I think it’s time for me to take up a more decisive role, that can give me the opportunity to make much more impact,” Eleonu said. Eleonu said one of their main platforms is trying to bridge the disconnect between students and
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Thursday, March 23, 2023 Vol. 76 No. 23
the faculty. He said that elimi- and the older faculty. Having nating some of the dissociations some leaders that are closer to the between the administration and faculty life range, and just able to students, branch that especia l ly gap a little concerneasier,” Jess ing larger said. “[Seechanges ing] what would help the faculty We are ready to serve. improve the is seeing We are older students student life, better, so and will imwe can then that have had a little prove the discern that overall exinformation, more experience and perience of and pass it we can bring things to students. down to the “ W e students in the table that others want to be the most efable to comfective and may not be able to. mu n icate, best way.” And the good thing is, with both E le onu faculty and said that imwe are ready to serve students, plementing to improve and seeing and share that student life, the new conbecause we st it ut ionknowledge.” have a lot al changes Jared Jess, Vice President Candidate of problems through as students would be a that we go top priority through that actually contributes for the team. The constitutional to the problems that the faculty changes include amendments to complain about,” Eleonu said. add new senators based on repJess, a senior mechatron- resentation for various groups, ics and robotics major who will rather than by school only. be attending graduate school to “We feel that we’re in the pursue a master’s in mechanical right position to actually move engineering, is running as vice forward with [the changes] bepresident. He said one of his big- cause these new positions are gest motivators to run is his belief going to be chosen for the next that a true leader shares knowl- academic year. [They are] new edge, and prepares others to take positions, there is no handover leadership positions. Jess said that file, so it will take a lot of dedias a non-traditional student with cation to be able to direct these more life experiences than most individuals on the right path so students, there are strengths he is that they can actually achieve the ready to use to help students. goals that we intended for mak“[We can be] the connector ing those positions,” Eleonu said. between the younger students Kenzie Richards and Juan
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Pizano are running together as president and vice president, running with a goal to increase support for student organization and transparency between administration and students. Richards, a junior psychology major, is running for president. She currently serves as external affairs officer for student government and said that her experience in that position drives her passion for supporting student involvement on campus. She said that this is greater than supporting student clubs and organizations through financial funding but encouraging them as well. “I want to make sure that student government not only gives these resources, but is supporting them as they go along, so making sure that we are marketing to other organizations, something that’s like, ‘Let’s go support each other,’” Richards said. Richards said that increasing transparency between students and administration is incredibly important to them. She said that students can often feel blindsided by information or not feel like they know what is actually going on, other than information spread by word of mouth. “We are the ones who are paying to be here right? We are what makes up this university. If you didn’t have students here, you wouldn’t have a university. So making sure that students are being communicated the things that they need to know, whether that be a weekly newsletter, a monthly newsletter that just makes sure the students have the information they deserve to have,” Richards said.
Juan Pizano, a freshman undeclared major, currently serves as the freshman senator. He said because he is still fairly new to student government, he is able to have a fresh take on what it means to be part of student government, which will be important when introducing the new senators who will be coming into brand-new positions as part of the amendments to the constitution. “I remember joining and feeling like the introduction to student government wasn’t as well as I would have hoped it to be, so making sure that the new elected senators for those new positions on Student Government, have the support and know what student government is about and know what they’re sort of expected to do,” Pizano said. Pizano said he knows he may not have every answer, but by working together with other people, he hopes to be able to support senators and other students. Both Richards and Pizano said that they are running hoping to see change on campus and to make an impact while continuing the work that this year’s student government has started. “I just really enjoy having an impact on campus, but also being a part of change on campus. Enacting our constitutional change was really awesome because I just love having more of a diverse view, and just more experiences that can contribute to the conversation that we have going forward,” Richards said. Online voting will open at 7 a.m. on March 28 and close at 7 p.m. March 29. Walk-up voting will take place both days from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Ukrainian student shares exhibit to commemorate invasion of Ukraine NICOLE BOYD opinion editor
“Unissued Diplomas” is an international exhibit honoring the stories of Ukrainian students who did not graduate as the result of the Russian war in Ukraine. A Ukrainian student decided to bring the exhibit to SIUE in her own way. Lisa Baruda, a junior journalism major from Odesa, Ukraine, said she wanted to share work from the exhibit at SIUE to draw attention to the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She said she chose to use posters with QR codes to the exhibit’s website where people can read the students’ stories themselves. “Here at SIUE, a lot of people, they are not really comfortable with talking about the
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Russian invasion of Ukraine, or I thought that maybe for here it might be too political, so I just decided to do it like this,” Baruda said. Baruda said when she originally put posters up, they were taken down by the next day. Although she said it made her sad, she put them up again because as the only Ukrainian international student at SIUE, she feels it’s important to speak up. “All I wanted was just to draw attention to [the war], because unfortunately here at SIUE I didn’t notice much attention and support,” Baruda said. Baruda said she hoped to educate SIUE students about what’s happening in Ukraine with attention-grabbing posters with two phrases, the first being something
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American students can relate to, and the second showing the impact of the war. “One of the posters said, ‘He dreamed about joining a fraternity,’ and the second phrase was, ‘But he joined a battalion instead,’” Baruda said. “I really wanted to create this thought in our students like, ‘What do you mean, battalion?’ or ‘What do you mean, war?’” Olga Bezhanova, chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, helped Baruda with getting approval to hang the posters outside the Foreign Language Department. Bezhanova said the organization
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itself provides the posters so that every university has the same kind of exhibit. “People have a shared experience of this event, and I think that’s very good that SIUE is doing something that’s geared toward marking the anniversary,”
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Bezhanova said. Bezhanova, who is from Ukraine, said she had to prepare herself emotionally to see the posters. She said it’s still very hard and she follows the events in Ukraine on the news all day, which is how people who are from Ukraine are living on a day-to-day basis. “It was an emotionally very fraught and touching moment, and I’m very glad that this was done. It was a student initiative, I just facilitated,” Bezhanova said. To view the unissued diplomas and the stories of the Ukrainian students they honor, visit the exhibit’s website, unissueddiplomas.org.
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