Unlike past years, this year’s campaign for Marquette University Student Government President and Executive Vice President for the 2024-25 academic year has three tickets instead of two.
The three student tickets include:
Amyah Brooks for President and Amani Dalieh for Executive Vice President: Brooks, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, and Dalieh, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences, based their campaign on two major things: interconnectedness across campus and uplifting marginalized voices.
Brooks serves as the MUSG senator for Arts & Sciences and Dalieh doesn’t serve in MUSG.
Lori Martinez for President and Kaitlyn Rohan for Executive Vice President: Martinez, a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, and Rohan, a sophomore in the College of Heath Sciences, are running off of three major pillars: Transparency between administration and the student body, improving campus accessibility and creating a safer campus.
Martinez currently serves as MUSG legislative vice president and Rohan is the MUSG senator for the College of Health Sciences and president pro tempore for the student senate.
Thilini Mendis for President and John Flanagan for Executive Vice President: The last ticket, Mendis and Flanagan, both juniors in the College of Arts & Sciences, are basing their campaign off three core ideas: Inclusivity, transparency and sustainability.
Flanagan doesn’t hold a position in MUSG and Mendis serves as the MUSG chief of staff.
MUSG had a debate March 24 where the six of them had the opportunity to emphasize their platforms. The Marquette Wire also sat down with each ticket March 22 and 25 to discuss what initiatives they are running on and their overall candidacy.
The election for MUSG president and executive vice president is being held Thursday, April 4. Students that are eligible to vote will be emailed a link to participate in the election from MUSG.
How did the two of you decide to run together?
Brooks and Dalieh: “I never thought I was going to be running for MUSG, but then I randomly got a text from Amyah saying, ‘What would you think? Let‘s talk about it. Let’s run because we kind of have the same values and morals when it comes to what we want to do for campus.’ And we decided because we know what needs to be done and we are on the same wavelength,” Dalieh said.
“I also think part of our campaign is diverse voices and bringing a united vision,” Brooks said. “And I feel, like she (Dalieh) said, we work very well together and we’ve known each other since our first year.”
Martinez and Rohan: “I’ve been wanting to run for president for quite some time. Immediately after being legislative vice-president I knew that I would run for president one day … and Kait is by far the best senator,” Martinez said. “We have so many of the same goals for the university, we have a strong commitment to the student body and we know every single department within our student government very, very well.”
“For me I didn’t come into Marquette knowing that I was going to run for vice president. Coming in as a biomedical science major, it’s not as typical. But as I joined MUSG and got to know the inner workings … being a part of that community in itself is something I want to continue,” Rohan said.
Mendis and Flanagan: “I wanted to run last year … but I wasn’t in MUSG yet,” Mendis said. “And then John and I work together (as RAs in Mashuda), so I asked him if he would be interested.”
“I was very excited. I didn’t know a whole lot about MUSG at the time, but after we talked about it some more, we went through what the role is and it was really cool,” Flanagan said.
What main initiatives are the two of you campaigning on?
Brooks and Dalieh: “Our main focus is interconnectedness — it’s an umbrella of views we have. Also, (having) more awareness on campus and informing students. Part of that I feel is there’s a lack of communication on campus of what’s happening, and our biggest goal is to inform students,” Brooks said. “We also want to focus on mental health.”
“She (Brooks) lives on campus and I’m a commuter, so we saw that difference (in campus experience). For me, I had to really seek it out to find different events,” Dalieh said. “So that’s our goal: to bring us all together, whether you commute or you’re a non-commuter, I just want everybody to have the same opportunities.”
Martinez and Rohan: “We have a mission statement: your pursuit for excellence is unrivaled, we promise to collaborate diligently with the Marquette University administration, to help provide transparency between the student body, the student government and the administration. We believe in creating a more accessible campus that will subsequently provide additional equal opportunities for all students. And we aim to create a safer campus that empowers all students, thus making students proud to call Marquette home,” Martinez said.
Mendis and Flanagan: “I think the biggest thing would probably be having a more open network with the student body and administration/faculty. John and I both have both held leadership positions in other clubs so we know concerns that are raised from students that we’d have to communicate because we’ve both had to deal with funding and stuff … and that obviously ties into inclusion too because there’s a lot of students that don’t really know the resources that they have available,” Mendis said.
What do you hope to accomplish your first month in office?
Brooks and Dalieh: “One of my main goals would be to have more events bringing student orgs together. I keep saying I just feel like all these orgs tend to be very separate, but I would love to see them come together,” Brooks said. “I personally have known what it can feel like to be excluded. Coming from my own personal background of being biracial. I feel like I have unique opportunities to see duality and multiple perspectives. And I just really hope to like bridge people together and have more collaborations.”
Martinez and Rohan: “I think I’m just excited to talk about transparency. I think that for me, personally, all of these are super important, but I feel like transparency kind of goes through them all. It’s our big overlay. This is a good thing that we need to work on, throughout all areas,” Rohan said.
Mendis and Flanagan: “I think the first thing would probably be going around to as many clubs as we can, and trying to introduce ourselves, just so they feel comfortable with raising their concerns. We did agree that when it comes to funding we want our students to know if they need any support, that’s something they can come to us and ask about. We want to create a system that’s easier for them to communicate with MUSG,” Mendis said.
Is there anything the current MUSG president and EVP Abbie Moravec and Tommy Treacy are doing well that you hope to carry over?
Brooks and Dalieh: “One of my biggest hopes to improve on is communication. I think that they’re (Moravec and Treacy) doing great behind the scenes work with administration, but I feel like a majority of students don’t know what they’re doing,” Brooks said. “One of my goals is being very open and honest of what we are doing and having clear defined action steps of what we’re doing rather than just saying we’re doing all of this.”
Martinez and Rohan: “I’ve worked with both Abbie and Tommy on the bill for menstrual products and there’s a bill coming up that Tommy and I spearheaded to fund the MarKept program … and I would really love to to continue to monitor both of those because they’re great initiatives,” Rohan said.
“I think that they had a really good step forward alongside Kait with providing women with menstrual products, but the thing is it’s only started in a few buildings, so making sure that we expand that everywhere and making it fully accessible to women in that way,” Martinez said.
Mendis and Flanagan: “I really like how they kept up with their promises. I know the period product thing was a huge thing for Abbie and I’ve been on board meetings and stuff. It’s been super interesting to see that they’re always talking about this (free menstrual products) and it came to fruition,” Mendis said. “They worked really tirelessly to go through with their promises.”
Each ticket’s closing remarks from the debate:
Brooks and Dalieh: “Together, we can shape a future that reflects the true essence of unity and diversity. So, let us embark on this journey together as we strive towards a brighter, more inclusive future for our university,” Brooks said.
Martinez and Rohan: “Kait and I do our absolute best to interpret the Constitution every single day, and we can comfortably say that we know the Constitution better than any,” Martinez said.
Mendis and Flanagan: “We are ready to build upon the successes of prior administration while addressing major shortcomings that still prevail in our community today,” Flanagan said.
This story was written by Julia Abuzzahab and Sophia Tiedge. They can be reached at julianna.abuzzahab@marquette.edu and sophia.tiedge@marquette.edu.