As a student-led organization, Technician’s editorial board has been — and will continue to be — transparent about NC State’s Student Government elections. The decision to endorse a candidate is not taken lightly by our editorial board, but we made a unanimous decision to not endorse one campaign for student body president and vice president.
Following the Technician/Nubian Message debate from Friday evening, each student body president and vice president candidate was given a chance to highlight their platform. Each ticket has been covered by Technician and Nubian Message.
Because there are four campaigns, we felt it was at times difficult to differentiate across platforms. Many tickets’ goals constituted the same things, especially when it came to Timothy Reid and Allison Markert’s campaign versus Nina Kudlak and Will Vuncannon’s. In the end, the tickets of Reid/Markert and Kudlak/Vuncannon each received roughly equal amounts of approval from members of the board.
Alternatively, both the campaign of Kayla Grogan and Katie Phillips and the campaign of Hilton Stallworth and Chima Nwosu received little support from the editorial board.
We were largely dissatisfied with Grogan and Phillips’ platform, which devoted nearly a page to athletics but lacked any mention of diversity within the subsections besides a brief mention of the sociohistorical implications of policing. Grogan and Phillips were asked about this at the Technician and Nubian Message debate, and their response is outlined below.
Grogan’s response was uncertain and vague, and it was evident their campaign did not thoroughly establish a commitment to prioritize diversity. Despite her claim that diversity is an “overarching goal” Grogan and Phillips aim to achieve, several members of the board felt this was not sufficiently reflected in the platform and seemed to be an afterthought.
We felt Stallworth and Nwosu’s platform severely lacks tangible strategies to reach the goals they promote. Their presence in the debate was insufficient when compared to Reid/Markert’s and Kudlak/Vuncannon’s platforms. Notably, Nwosu is the only student body vice president candidate that is not currently a member of Student Government.
Nonetheless, Stallworth and Nwosu’s platform advocates for diversity, equity and inclusion. During the debate, Stallworth and Nwosu discussed their experiences on campus as Black students, and Stallworth highlighted his platform’s emphasis on advocacy for people who use the Disability Resources Office.
Kudlak and Vuncannon’s platform delineates clear, actionable plans to accomplish their goals, but some editorial board members felt their strategies were not feasible. To address the first-year experience, the pair aims to publish a report with recommendations in March 2024. However, this puts the onus on their successors to implement said recommendations, which is not guaranteed.
The Kudlak/Vuncannon platform did consider accessibility, which is notably absent from the Reid/Markert platform. Kudlak and Vuncannon’s platform discusses organizing a “State of Accessibility” forum to understand accessibility issues on campus, as well as working to make campus more accessible for deaf and hard of hearing students.
Although accessibility was also discussed in Grogan and Phillips’ platform and Stallworth and Nwosu’s platform, the Kudlak/Vuncannon platform made it clear that the pair intend to shape their accessibility advocacy around student concerns, whereas the other two platforms don’t explicitly outline plans to hold similar feedback forums.
Reid and Markert did, however, have the most comprehensive plan regarding mental health and wellness. One priority and similarity across all campaigns was the discussion about wellness days and mental health, which was a good sign for students to see from their potential student body officers.
With all of this being said, none of the topics, solutions and arguments outlined above garnered the support of a majority of the editorial board.
Given the nature of voting between four separate tickets, we do believe a runoff election is likely. If this does indeed happen, the editorial board will discuss providing an endorsement for students and deliberate which of the options we prefer.
Technician’s editorial board asks that you take the time to review all candidates and their platform’s efforts and choose wisely. Voting began Monday, March 6 at 12:01 am and will continue through Tuesday, March 7 at 11:59 pm on the Get Involved website. Results will be announced Wednesday, March 8, at 7:30 pm.
This unsigned editorial is the responsibility of the editor-in-chief.
