SUNY Oswego held a general election on Tuesday, where students voted online to determine who will be their next president and vice-president of the student association (SA) for the 2018-2019 academic year.
Omar van Reenen – SA’s director of diversity, equity and inclusion and an international student from Namibia, Africa – and Andre Nichols, SA’s chair of safety, health, advocacy, rights and environmental issues, are both running for president of SA. Both have a variety of issues that they stand for on campus and are perhaps two of the most similar candidates to run against one another in a student government election on Oswego’s campus.
Edward Kelly, a Senator-At-Large in SA and Catherine Millington, the Funnelle Hall senator who also sits on various committees within the student governing body, are running for the slot of vice-president.
Reenen and Nichols are large advocates for the equal funding among men’s and women’s club sports teams, a movement that has gained significant momentum, as well as backlash, on campus. Through Oswego’s online portal LakerLife, the site which is home to all of the student organizations, an online voting system was sent out on Tuesday to students, where they could electronically vote either ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for the candidates, while also having the option to abstain.
The votes will be calculated within the next week. Stay tuned for more updates on the election!