SGA hosted a debate on Tuesday, April 18, between the two tickets vying for president and vice president of next year’s student government in the Lindberg Center.

Sophomores Neleigh Rush and Katie Frese make up one ticket, while juniors Rachel Nandelenga and Amen Bekele make up the other. Earlier in the semester, these members of student government needed to collect 300 signatures around campus to petition to run for these positions.

This debate is the first one held in person since 2019. Last year there was only one ticket, the previous year the debate was online and in the year before that, no one was even on campus due to the pandemic.

Dr. Mariano Magalhaes, professor of political science, moderated the debate and posed questions that students themselves submitted. Before the statements and questions, he also spoke about the importance of student voices.

“When I see students not getting the chance to have a seat at the table on decisions that impact them, it frustrates me,” Magalhaes said.

He mentioned Augie Choice, which was thought of by a student, not administration and was formed through the cooperation of students and administration. Augie Choice has even inspired other schools to create similar programs.

“When I was a university student in Brazil, I participated in conversations at the national level about how student rights would actually be written into the new constitution,” Magalhaes said. “Since then, it’s just been really a part of what I value.”

Rush is a senator and chair of the finances committee. She’s running for president alongside Frese on the platform of increasing student government visibility, mental health and well-being of students as well as hearing student voices and working with administration to fix issues.

“The wage increase for some students on campus was the first thing I saw in SGA that had a campus-wide effect,” Rush said.

Earlier in the year, Rush helped plan a town hall for student workers, which stirred sentiment on campus and furthered change in how the school pays its student workers.

“I kind of went into SGA blind freshman year, but I’ve begun to completely love it,” Rush said. “It’s been completely different than what I expected.”

Frese is a senator and chair of the well-being committee. She felt inspired to run through her closeness with Rush and the fact that leadership skills are important both in SGA and in her future profession.

“People really encouraged me to speak up more,” Frese said. “It’s okay to say a motion wrong in the beginning, you’ll learn eventually.”

Nandelenga is treasurer for student government running for president, alongside Bekele, a senator and co-chair of the international committee, running for vice president. They’re running on a platform of outreach, emphasizing that students can make their voices heard when they feel comfortable and are shown the resources.

“I noticed the divide between all the different groups, and that was something that got to me,” Nandelenga said. “We should all be able to interact with each other and build each other up and I feel like that was something that was lacking.”

Nandelenga draws from her experience as an immigrant. She understands the atmosphere at Augustana that’s shaped by the interactions between students from different backgrounds.

“In the real world you’re not just gonna be in your community,” Nandelenga said. “You’re gonna be interacting with a variety of perspectives and a variety of communities, and you need to be able to interact with them and be able to communicate with them.”

At the start of the debate, Nandelenga pointed out one of her strengths.

“I’m not the loudest one in the room,” Nandelenga said. “But I am a good listener.”

Bekele finds strength in how taking part in student government has changed her. In her second semester, when she started as a senator, she was only one of two international students part of student government.

“I felt out of place at first, like what am I doing here?” Bekele said.

Bekele makes an effort to lead by example, pointing out that there are now ten international students in student government, and that they feel more comfortable.

“I grew up in a community where, you weren’t allowed to talk as freely, you weren’t allowed to say much,” Bekele said. “I moved here at 18, and my life changed dramatically.”

Freshman Brayden Atkisson is a first year senator and part of the election committee, and helped facilitate the election season.

“I have a friend at ISU, and he’s running for, not even president or anything, just a normal senate position, and he’s been campaigning for about two and half months,” Atkisson said.

Augustana is a much smaller school, which explains why the campaign season here is shorter. For two and a half weeks before Easter, prospective candidates needed to gather 300 signatures for a petition to run. Voting is taking place Wednesday, April 19 and Thursday, April 20.

As for the debate, Atkisson said he was excited.

“We’re trying to make a bigger deal of SGA,” Atkisson said. “Oftentimes, the president and vice president bring up student concerns to admin.”