Student Government elections are Oct. 26 and 27, and you may have seen some people around campus campaigning in green shirts adorned with “ZRE.” But who is ZRE? We sat down with the execs to find out more about their vision for Xavier.
Who is ZRE?
Zeina Farhat, Class of 2018
- Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
- Majors/Minors: Public Relations major, Business minor
- Something most people don’t know about you: I can beat-box.
- Favorite thing about Xavier: Definitely the community, and the extracurricular side of life that creates the community. That’s where people feel that they belong the most.
- Favorite aspect of your platform: It’s On X, because sexual assault on college campuses should never be swept under the rug. It should be a priority.
- Zeina is also the only female presidential candidate running for student government.
Ryan Fitzgerald, Class of 2019
- Hometown: Phoenix, AZ
- Majors/Minors: Marketing and Economics double major
- Something most people don’t know about you: I can play four stringed instruments.
- Favorite thing about Xavier: The willingness of the administration, faculty, and staff to give the responsibility to the students. Extracurriculars are so student driven, and I love that what you see is put on by the student body. I’m proud to say that we have high-achieving students here.
- Favorite aspect of your platform: the platform entirely, because it speaks to who we are as a team and what we’re passionate about. The issues in the platform reflect our mission for collaboration, commitment, community. Our proposal for increased LGBTQIA resources creates a space where dialogue is open in the Xavier community, and where students, faculty, staff, and administration come together to toss ideas around to make sure that they are best suited to the entire community.
Eduardo Patron, Class of 2018
- Hometown: Waterloo, Belgium
- Majors/Minors: Political Science and International Studies double major, Philosophy minor
- Something most people don’t know about you: I’m a huge Batman and Star Wars nerd, like really huge.
- Favorite thing about Xavier: The school’s identity. I love everything the school promotes, and the ideal values that we live out here everyday.
- Favorite aspect of your platform: Apart from It’s On X, I’d have to say the solidarity exchange program. It allows students to manifest Xavier’s identity, and it has a lot of potential to help people live out Jesuit values here on campus.
How long have you been putting together your platform?
Ryan: For the last two months we’ve been working on it.
What is one thing that makes you stand out from the other Exec. campaigns?
Zeina: I picked these two specifically because of what they bring to ticket. It’s so different from the other tickets. We all have very diverse experiences from one another, whether it be cultural or academic. We come from different places, from different majors. Together we fit each other, we get everything that we miss. What makes us stand out is we are so committed and we are so aware of the student body and their needs. We drew our influence from the student body and administrators, and we made our platform by listening to people. That’s what makes us different. We took the time to build something that we believe in.
Eduardo: I want to add how proactive we were in going out and engaging people that would help us get these things done. If we became executives, or even if we don’t and we become senators, we are very passionate about what we’re talking about and we know how to get these things done even before we take office.
What makes you work well as a team?
Ryan: We as a group are the most diverse ticket. We reach very different circles on campus, and that’s part of the reason why the three of us came together. As a whole we have a lot of different perspectives, and we’re able to get insights from students from all different areas in the campus and the community. I would say that’s probably our biggest strength: having different experiences. Zeina is a great executor, her programming background with SAC is going to be really helpful. Eduardo makes sure that we never overlook any group that is being excluded, and he is also great with people. We can ask him to talk to anybody and he’s always comfortable. He’s always willing to go out of his comfort zone.
Zeina: And Ryan is so well-versed. Academically, he’s so involved in the business school. He’s a sophomore and you would never think it because of his wisdom. He’s very intellectual. We all bring something, different, and I’m just so impressed by these two, because I don’t want to feel like I’m the only one carrying anything, and I’ve never felt that way for a second.
What’s been the most challenging part of the process?
Zeina: Letting other people get to you. People who aren’t our supporters who have negative things to say, I think that’s the hardest thing. To get past scrutiny. We have good intentions, so you have to keep yourself positive. I’m a people pleaser, I care what people think. I just have to remind myself that we have such a good base of supporters, and that overshadows anything negative in this process.
Ryan: I would say the hardest part for me was being so proactive, you get passionate about what you’re doing quickly, especially when it comes to implementing policy that’s near and dear to your heart. So having to hold back because the campaign process won’t allow you campaign outside of its restrictions. So by building our support group, designing the content we wanted to push, creating the platform, and working with administrators, I got really excited and pumped to just start getting to work. But, even by doing all that work, we still don’t have the office. So that’s hard for me, to think that we’ve done all this work and we just have to see what happens.
What is one aspect of your platform that could be improved?
Zeina: I think the length could be something that deters people from reading the whole thing. Although, we can’t shorten it because all points deserve explanation. So I think the length is the one thing that could possibly be a weakness. But the content is so important we wouldn’t have it any other way. Everything that’s in there, needs to be in there.
Which aspect of your platform do you think is most beneficial to the Xavier community?
Ryan: I’m not going to give you one, but I will give you a reason why there are three of them: housing over breaks, LGBTQIA resources, and It’s On X. If we have these resources and we develop these programs we are going to make Xavier a much more attractive place for a diverse student body, which is what Xavier as a university promotes. And by creating these diverse learning spaces and creating a space where we can share ideas and develop our philosophies on who we want to be as people and what Xavier represents as a university, all Xavier graduates and members of the community are going to grow exponentially because of that. So I think that is a major benefit to the initiatives on our platform that deal specifically with making a more open community to those that increase our diversity.
Want more information?
Follow ZRE on their social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and read their entire platform here.
Editor Note: Regardless of who you vote for make sure to VOTE on October 25 and 26! – HCXU