Student Government (SG) elections are fast approaching with two pairs of candidates competing for the presidential and vice presidential positions. Ashley Carrington, a third year Finance and Management Information Systems double major, and Tyler Pierce, a third year Management Information Systems major, are going up against Joseph “Joe” Sciandra, a third year Manufacturing Engineering Technology major, and Jim “Chip” Francesca, a second year Biomedical Sciences major. 

Ashley and Tyler

Carrington is currently the director of finance for SG, has club and Major Student Organization (MSO) experience and was a student athlete during her freshman year. She says her time in SG has exposed her to what one can do as a student body representative, which motivated her to run for president. She wants to enhance student life through more programs and increased student feedback to allow the campus to reach its full potential.

Pierce has experience with working with administration and leading committees and organizations. He explained that he would like to give back to the RIT community for all the support that it has given him and aims to make SG more efficient and productive. Carrington asked Pierce to be her running mate because they have previous experience working together. “I think he is one of the best managers that I’ve worked for,” said Carrington. “Which I think will translate well into the senators since he will manage 15 senators.”

The pair’s main goals include making more students aware of the services SG can provide and aware of issues and changes that are brought up in senate meetings. Some services they are hoping to implement include a wethepeople.gov-styled site so students can create petitions for the administration to review, a way for students to check previous professor syllabi integrated with SIS or Mycourses and the creation of a 24-hour study space on campus. The two want to make sure student’s voices are properly conveyed to the administration and want to improve the relationship between cabinet members and senators. You can reach out to them on their website, which includes their platform, in-depth bios and a contact form.

Joe and Jim

Sciandra has been the service chairman for the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, was an orientation assistant for two years and has previously served as CAST senator. He knew he wanted to be in a position to make a change on campus during the convocation of his freshman class, where he saw the current SG president at the time, Greg Pollock.

Francesca became involved on campus when he joined Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity, where he worked on a variety of positions and philanthropic projects. He stated that he had dreams of being involved with SG but never thought it would be possible until Sciandra asked him to be his vice president. “He [Jim] is a great leader and he is a known face,” said Sciandra. “He is someone I know that can represent my values as well as SG’s values.”

They two explained that they want to have SG focus on campus wide issues more than projects and services. One of their goals is further advocate SG to RIT students in order to make them more aware of important issues and changes happening to the campus. They stated that another goal for SG meetings is to have Robert’s Rules of Order be the guide for meetings to maximize time and lower inefficiency. In addition, they hope to close the gap of disconnect between cabinet members and senators for better communication and less confusion. Sciandra and Francesca want to hold more open forums on urgent issues and potential ideas for future projects and changes. More information is available on their website.

Voting for all SG positions begins April 14 and ends the 17. Students are encouraged to participate in the voting process.