Candidates Revealed for 2024 SGA Senate Election

Image courtesy of Noah Slayter and previously used for this Tower article.

By Anthony Curioso

It is election season for the tenth iteration of the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate, also known as Senate X. 

The election is on  September 23. Each undergraduate class and academic school will elect two senators. Voting is from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. in person at the Pryzbyla Center or online via the Nest website. Below is an overview of the 2024 SGA senate election candidates, with incumbents notated as such in their respective races.

Two candidates are running to represent the class of 2025: senior criminology major Noelle Ward and senior politics major Owen Halbrook. 

Four candidates are running for the two class of 2026 Senate seats: junior politics majors Bennett Bert, Rylie Novak, and Joseph  Shagoury, and junior philosophy major Gabriel Aliaga.

Bert served as a Senator twice but is not technically the incumbent for this race because he only served for the fall of 2023, then went abroad in  spring 2024 to the Catholic University Rome campus. During his first term in 2022-23, Bert passed a resolution to make Flather Hill safer for pedestrians. In his 2023-24 partial term, he passed a resolution to increase safety training for faculty and students.

Shagoury’s campaign slogan consists of two principles: “Save Starbucks, Save CUA.” This slogan is likely a response to last year’s senate advocacy effort to replace the Pryzbyla Center Starbucks with another alternative. 

Novak’s campaign messaging centers around ensuring women are fairly represented in the senate and a pledge of “no empty promises.”

Five candidates entered the race to represent the class of 2027: Jack Hermes, Isabella Graham, Austin Janssen, and Owen Lee.

Hermes is the incumbent in this race. At the last senate meeting in 2023-24, he passed a resolution calling for protein sources and energy drinks in the Kane Fitness Center. 

Weatherwax ran an unsuccessful campaign for the class of 2027 seat last year but maintained involvement in the senate as one of two senate secretaries responsible for recording the meeting minutes.

Janssen’s campaign this year focuses on three principles: “Better Kane, Better Food, Better Health.” He says he seeks to build upon Hermes’ resolution from the end of last school year regarding the Kane Center protein and energy sources.

Graham’s platform primarily consists of adding resources to the Kane Fitness Center and the residence halls. 

The field for the class of 2028 senators is smaller than it has been for the freshman senators in previous years. This year, eight candidates are running for the class of 2028: Faustina Bernardy, Nicolas Albarano, Taj Holloway, Kevin McNicholas, Devyn Siversen, Christian Sawn, Elizabeth McKenzie, and Sebastian Noriega. 

Albarano commented on his plans for if he is elected.

“If elected, I will advocate to make university budgeting information more available to assess how to improve our services,” Albarano said.

The School of Architecture and Planning has only one candidate: 2023-24 senator and senior architecture major Elisabeth D’Albero, who was involved in last year’s SGA advocacy efforts for the UPass program.

In the School of Arts and Sciences, students can choose between the following candidates: sophomore politics majors Julian Coleman and Gavin Stapleton, junior politics majors Gary VanPelt and William Benson, and freshman psychology major Elizabeth Erwin. 

VanPelt, a junior politics major, ran twice for the Class of 2026 senate seats and, like Weatherwax, served as one of the two senate secretaries after his first election loss.

As for the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music, Drama, and Art, three-term senator Kyle Holcomb, who represented that school for two of his three years as a senator, graduated in May. As such, the only candidate running for the Rome School this year is junior vocal performance major Jason DeSilva Jr.

This year’s Busch School of Business senator candidates are sophomore business majors Gianluca Albanese and Matthew Moskowski. Albanese was a vocal opponent of last year’s SGA advocacy to replace the Pryzbyla Center Starbucks during public comment at the senate meeting when the senators voted on that resolution.

Like the Rome School and Architecture School, the Conway School of Nursing has only one candidate running for the seat: senior nursing major Elizabeth Papa. Papa being the only candidate in the Conway School of Nursing this year is in stark contrast to last year when four candidates ran to represent the nursing school. 

The School of Engineering senate race features incumbent senator and computer science major Allison Ewing, who was the student resources committee chair in the senate last year. Ewing is running against sophomore mechanical engineering major Richard Harrington and junior biomedical engineering major Emma Wallace.

As of this writing, the School of Philosophy has no official candidates who will appear on the ballot on Election Day. 

The School of Theology and Religious Studies also has only one candidate: freshman theology major Clifford Pfaff. Three-year incumbent senator and senior theology major Andrea Suarez is not on the official ballot. Still, as is the case with any candidate for any race who is not on the official ballot, that does not preclude students from casting write-in votes for her.

Likewise, the National Catholic School of Social Service (NCSSS) only has one candidate: junior social work major Frances Noory, who was appointed to the NCSSS senate seat midway through the 2022-23 school year and served at the Executive Cabinet level as the Senior Director of the Executive Initiatives in 2023-24.