February 4th marks annual student government elections, and with it, the opportunity to participate in the election of prominent student leaders on campus. Many students on Notre Dame’s campus may not truly appreciate or understand the role Student Government plays in campus life, and how it has the potential to implement effective policies that reflect student’s needs and passions. This year features two student tickets vying for the roles of student body president and vice-president respectively. These students have held a variety of leadership positions on campus and both demonstrate a determination and desire to enact positive change for the student body as student body president/vice-president. Below are the candidates, their platforms, and visions for Notre Dame’s campus.
Neil Joseph-Presidential Candidate
Noemi Ventilla-Vice Presidential Candidate
Neil Joseph, a Political Science and Economics double major and Noemi Ventilla, a Political Science and Peace Studies double major, are both sophomores with experience in Freshman Class Council, Sophomore Class Council, and Student Senate. Ventilla is current president of the Sophomore Class while Joseph serves as treasurer, and have each had experience in planning and programming campus events since freshman year. Neil and Noemi emphasize their experience working with top administrators and officials on campus and expressed their desire to implement initiatives that would allow students to communicate and reach out to student government more frequently. Joseph said he hopes students understand the power student government has to get things done.Â
“Not only are you electing whose going to represent you  but you’re also choosing the direction your school heads,” Joseph said.Â
Joseph said one idea they have is to create office hours where students would have the opportunity to interact with student government officials and express their concerns regarding different issues on campus.Â
“We really want to open student government up because we do note that sometimes student government seems insulated, but it [student government] really does involve students in the decision making process,” Joseph said.Â
Major issues include DARTing reform and availability of CIF’s before DARTing, hot Grab’n’Go lunches, providing clubs with greater access to funding by streamlining the process for fund approval, and implementing policies that will encourage students to engage with student government officials.Ventilla and Joseph said while some initiatives may be more difficult to implement than others, they are both confident in their ability to communicate their ideas with campus administrators to get things done.
Ventilla said her experience working with important campus officials has helped her see the responsibility and trust campus administrators place in students. According to Ventilla, interacting with campus officials has allowed her to understand how to navigate campus policies to implement projects.Â
“That has taught us how to get things done respectfully and get our voices heard and have people be receptive to it, but it also gives us a really immediate contact, which means we can get things done quickly,” Ventilla said.Â
Ventilla said one issue she sees as particularly challenging at ND is the process of fund acquisition for student clubs and organizations. Ventilla says she hopes to see a change in the bureaucratic structure that goes into acquiring funds for campus activities.Â
“The amount of people that funds have to go through is very inefficient and we’ve seen that in student government and we’re plagued by it and we’ve had to work around it. […]most clubs don’t have the power to do that and we want to extend that power to clubs outside of class council.” Ventilla said
Overall, both Joseph and Ventilla encouraged students to become active in this years elections and understand the role they play in influencing campus projects.Â
Bryan Ricketts- Presidential Candidate
Nidia Ruelas- Vice Presidential Candidate
Bryan Ricketts is a junior studying Chemical Engineering and Political Science, while Nidia Ruelas is a Political Science and French double major. Their platform emphasizes their involvement in gender and diversity issues on campus, with Ricketts as leader of Notre Dame’s PrismND and peer educator for the GRC, while Ruelas is active in Diversity Council and Multicultural Student Programs and Services. Ricketts and Ruelas emphasized how central identity and inclusion is to their platform. Both Ricketts and Ruelas said their involvement in their respective organizations helped them understand the importance of inclusion and identity at Notre Dame.
“It opened up new doors as to how leaders could help students. From that came my role as president of PrismND and my ability to open those spaces for students as well. I think that’s a model that translates to how student government should work. Recognizing where students are at, what their interests are,” Ricketts said.Â
Some of their platform issues include implementing the University’s goals for diversity, creating an active social media campaign to promote more effective communication between the student body and student government, revising Frosh-O orientation process and committee selection, and implementing Dorm week, an initiative to promote dorm identity.
Ricketts said while their campaign includes multiple campus issues, it is still open for student input and said they hope they can encourage accessibility so students can input their ideas and concerns.Â
“It’s comprehensive but still flexible, yet we address a lot of areas that we have had experience in…our flexibility comes from our social media policy that says that if there’s something here [on our platform] that we haven’t thought of, we will hear you out,” Ricketts said.
Ruelas said her experience with dorm life and multicultural issues helped her recognize the importance of inclusion on campus and feels it is reflected in their platform. She said she hopes to continue and expand on previous student government initiatives, and is passionate about gender issues on campus.Â
“Something that was really important to us in the process of forming our platform was meeting others and asking, ‘how can we serve you?’ That was something that we’ve been very clear on,” Ruelas said.Â
Ricketts and Ruelas also elaborated on issues such as the relationship to the South Bend community. Ruelas said she hoped they could encourage greater involvement with South Bend by changing the current perspective students have of South Bend.Â
“One of the ideas that we have is we want to change the rhetoric about South Bend so that its not seen as just a space to do service. [Service] is important but I think in addition to that is that it’s a community we want to be part of. That there are businesses and people and so many services in South Bend so that students can engage in,” Ruelas said.Â
As students at the University of Notre Dame, we have the responsibility to engage and care about our campus. Our votes express not only our preferences but our voices, passions, and concerns regarding campus issues. Students can vote on February 4th through the Judicial council email ballot. For more information on each candidates platforms, see Neil and Noemi’s platform here and Bryan and Nidia’s platform here.
Â
Follow HCND on Twitter, like us on Facebook, Pin with us and show our Instagram some love!.Â
Images: All photos were obtained with permission from the interviewees.