Three students are running in this year’s Student Government Association presidential race for the 2023-24 school year.

The candidates for president are as follows:

• Alli Dimmitt, SGA chief of staff and junior political science major from Naples, Florida
• Mariana Martinez, junior class president and junior advertising/public relations major from Tatumbla, Honduras

The candidate for vice president is Nathan Marshall, SGA treasurer and junior financial management and information systems major from McKinney.

In order for candidates to be eligible to run, candidates must attend an interest meeting. From there candidates recieve a petition where they must obtain 300 signatures for both president and vice president positions.

“Once they are elected, they go right into reviewing applications for the executive cabinet and that’s about a two-week process,” said Lindsey May, SGA president and senior marketing and management major from Farmersville. “Then we have cabinet shadowing where the exchange of power happens during the week before finals”

Service, Standards and Support: Alli Dimmitt and Nathan Marshall

Dimmitt has been involved with SGA as a student, a senator and on the executive board. She first was elected to SGA as freshman class president which involved event planning and delegating with the executive board.

“I don’t think I would have chosen to run unless I saw it as the best opportunity to serve the student body,” Dimmitt said.

Dimmitt and Marshall are running as a team with the platform of service, standards and support.

These standards reflect the three main areas that SGA affects, the student body, student organizations and senate. With service relating to the student body, support to student organizations and standards to senators.

“When Nathan and I were presenting our platform we wanted to make sure we touched on every single one of those,” Dimmitt said. “For us, it was much more making sure we had tangible ways that our administration was going to affect that SGA is over.”

Dimmitt plans to use the money that SGA receives from the student activity fees more efficiently with campaign weeks.

“Something that I am really passionate about is making sure that the student activity fee that every student pays is given back to them in a way that is beneficial to them, exciting to them and makes them proud of being at ACU,” Dimmitt said. “I don’t want these weeks to be focused on a certain group of people, I want it to reach all of the students.”

Dimmit also plans to help student organizations in non-monetary ways well as giving student organizations a book of resources such as budget help and the past of the organization.

With the Senate, Dimmitt wants to create space where senators feel comfortable presenting legislation.

“We believe that when people are in a place of leadership, based on responsibility there should be a lot expected of them,” Dimmitt said. “We are very excited to be able to turn out legislation that is truly representative as a student body and equip them so they are not scared.”

Marshall, however, is running unopposed despite there being two presidential candidates.

“I’ve been a part of the senate this whole time so I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t seem to work,” Marshall said. “It just allowed me to get a lot of ideas to make the senate productive and more efficient and use the time and resources that senate has to best get leaders to create their ideas to produce into legislation.”

The vice president of SGA mainly is in charge of approving legislation, leading senate meetings and working personally with senators.

“I just thought there was a lot more improvement that we could make within the way we dealt with the senate and the way we dealt with student organizations, just the internal function of the executive team,” Marshall said. “I just saw an opportunity to make it a lot better and serve students.”

Hospitality, Inclusivity and Accountability: Mariana Martinez

Presidential candidate, Mariana Martinez,  and junior advertising/public relations major from Tatumbla, Honduras is campaigning on the platform of hospitality, inclusivity and accountability with the slogan of “This is your home.”

“This should be a home for everybody, I want everybody to have a seat at the table,” Martinez said. “Hospitality is more than just welcoming, there’s more that goes into that. I want ACU to be a place where you feel comfortable enough to make mistakes.”

Martinez joined SGA as a sophomore senator and is now serving as junior class president. So far with her time elected to SGA, Martinez passed legislation to lower chapel credits for upperclassmen that continues to be worked on.

“I want people to feel like they have a community surrounding them that will hold them accountable to all their goals,” Martinez said. “But for me personally, I would want us to be held to a higher standard, I want to be held accountable and get all the things that need to get done.”

Martinez plans to let student-elected leaders be more empowered and introduce a speakers podium where somebody outside of the senate proposes their ideas.

“Legislation is being passed but not all of it is actually successful,” Martinez said. “Bringing in somebody from the outside and giving students the opportunity to speak their voice to people who can actually do something about it. I want everyone to feel like they have a voice and that it’s being heard.”

Martinez wants the campus to feel more inclusive to all people who come from all different paths of life.

“There is so much beauty in this campus and its diversity,” Martinez said. “We need to start creating spaces where we can celebrate that daily, it needs to be a constant thing where we can be celebrating our differences rather than making that something that separates us.”

Voting will open Monday at 9 a.m. and will remain open until Tuesday at 12 p.m. The official changing of the guard ceremony will take place on May 3.