In anticipation of upcoming Student Government Association (SGA) elections, The Review asked each of the three presidential candidates — James Ziereis, Mohammed Rakin Chowdhury and Ava Cavolo —  a series of questions.

Q: Introduce yourself with your name, major(s), minor(s) and year.

Ziereis: “James Ziereis, I’m majoring in chemical engineering with minors in material science and engineering and history, and I am a junior in the class of 2027” 

Chowdhury: “So my name is Mohammed Rakin Chowdhury. I’m a junior computer and information science major.” 

Cavolo: “Ava Cavolo, class of 2027, I’m a junior, and I’m a double major in psychology and criminal justice with minors in Spanish, history, sociology and leadership.” 

Q: How many years have you served in SGA and what positions have you held? 

Ziereis: “I got involved in the Student Government Association during my sophomore year. In my first year of involvement I was a faculty affairs senator through the judicial branch, where I represented the student body in the Faculty Senate meetings and relayed information to the student body about things that were happening in the meetings. This past year, I served as Chief Justice, so the head of our judicial branch, and in that position, I sat on the police advisory councils for the University of Delaware Police Department and the Newark Police Department. I also sit in Board of Trustees meetings as a member.”

Chowdhury: “I was also a treasurer for SGA from the 24-25 session, and I was also a student affairs senator before that. So I would say I have a good experience working with SGA and UD.”

Cavolo: “I started [SGA] my sophomore year as a PR senator, or public relations senator. So I mainly focus on social media. I was elected as the Vice President of External Affairs for my junior year, which is where I am right now. Then I was just in charge of the entire external branch. So lots of outreach, social media, things like that.”

Q: What leadership experience best prepares you for this role, and what did you learn from it?

Ziereis: “I think the leadership experience that most prepares me for this role is my position as vice president within Engineers Without Borders. That organization has a lot of ground to cover. We have three different international projects that we work on, our water infrastructure, and a health team that we just started up, as well as two domestic projects doing research here on campus and then also working in the greater Newark and Wilmington community. In my mind, the Student Government Association works in a similar way. We have three different branches: our external branch, our university affairs branch and our judicial branch, and we focus on things ranging from within the university to outside in the city of Newark. I think my experience in being able to manage a team that has a varying, vast portfolio of skill sets from Engineers Without Borders directly transfers to being able to manage the incredible team of people who are able to represent the student body through our university affairs branch, represent them in meetings with the police and the city of Newark and also getting our name out there as well through our external branch.”

Chowdhury: “Even before coming to UD, I was a student leader back home, I was the president for student government. Even after coming to UD, I was involved with SGA, from the get-go. I joined as a student affairs senator. I’ve been working with the Orientation and Transition Programs Office (OTP), the academic office. So I have connections with the students. And right now I’m an RA, so I have a cohort of 42 students that I directly supervise. I was a TA for the Leadership 200 class, which teaches you how to be leaders. So leadership has been rooted in my life, and not only that, I have a huge passion for working with people. I was in CAPE (Committee on Cultural Activities and Public Events) overseeing all of the culture and engagements. I was on the student scholarship committee, a committee that oversees how funds will be dispersed among Masters and PhD students. I was also involved with the international studies committee. It oversees the study abroad things and stuff. All of the experience prepares me best for what I wanted — to be the SGA president.”

Cavolo: “I was the president of my fraternity, and I was a founding executive board member, so that was a big growth experience, where I had to learn how to balance being a student and also being a leader. Having the experience in communicating with the RSO office, communicating with our organization’s national office, that gave me a lot of that, like bridging between students and faculty and students and outside administrations, which is a lot of what the presidential role entails, is talking to community administration, talking to the students. We also do a lot with, like, the Newark community in general. Having that, three-way communication is something I’ve had a lot of experience with. I think the main thing I took away from that is, honestly, patience. It’s not the main thing people think of when they think of leadership, but I think having patience and understanding with everyone you’re communicating with helps to, one, make better connections between people, and two, helps you stay calm and able to kind of get everything that you need to get done. Having patience to get the message from the side, relay it to the other side, I think that’s been the most important skill that I’ve developed, and also being able to balance commitments and prioritize what needs to get done, and also accepting that things aren’t going to go perfect every single time, and learning how to have that patience and adapt when things don’t go the way you think they will originally. Those have been super beneficial in my leadership positions now, and I think that’ll only translate to a future position.”

Q: How will you ensure that student voices — not just senators — shape your agenda?

Ziereis: “I think that comes down to the engagement with the student body. You know, we have an office in Perkins, one of the student centers, and I think really being able to highlight that and highlight when different members of our organization will be in there, so students are able to come to us. But then there’s also the component of us going to students as well, something that has worked really well for Engineers Without Borders in terms of our engagement, has been going to different classrooms. That’s something I would be interested in doing and seeing if it’s applicable: going directly to classrooms to hear from students and talk with them about things that are impacting them. I think it really has to do with our outreach through our external branch. I mean, a third of the association is really meant to be doing outreach with the student body and so strengthening what we’re doing there, and having the outlets for students to be able to get their voices heard, you know, maybe walking around Perkins and asking them, you know, what they think about the university, if there’s anything that can be improved.”

Chowdhury: “What I plan to do is use the platform that I intend to create. Every month, we will have a discussion, whether it’s within the Senate or, like, including the Cabinet meeting. I plan to talk about different issues that students are facing right now, not the things that we feel like we need to do, but rather what students need. If there’s a regulation that a senator wants to pass, I want to have at least feedback from like 100 students, so that I can make sure that it’s something that students are facing. Whenever we are making big decisions, I feel like students should play some kind of role in it. So like, whenever there’s a Senate, I would like to force my cabinet to, you know, market this as much as you can so that at least we have like, 5-10 people who can give their opinions.”

Cavolo: “I’m really, really passionate about outreach and all of those things. I think reiterating what I said earlier, it’s not just saying, ‘Hi, we’re here. Come talk to us.’ It’s going out into the community and talking in those other spaces. I think that’s the best way because it’s almost more welcoming to say ‘Hi, I want to come to your space, and I want to put myself in your shoes, or hear from you in your space or in your organization that you’re passionate about.’ So I think that would be something I would continue to prioritize and try and weave throughout everything that we’re doing in the Senate. We’re the bridge, we’re the connection, we’re the representation for the entire student body. So, making sure we take that out of just our Senate and bring it into the whole student body.”

Q: How do you plan to work with the university administration, seeing that we have a new president?

Ziereis: “In talking with a few students, some of them brought up that the student government should be more adversarial to the administration. And although I do understand the sentiment, I’ve seen it in practice, and it does not go over well. I think that the work with the administration needs to be one of we’re on the same level. Needs to be collaborative in order to listen to the students and take it to heart, and help us find mutual solutions that can benefit the students. I am not too sure how President Assanis was when it came to listening to student feedback, but based on my interactions with President Carlson and from what I’ve seen from other cabinet members within the organization, she’s really interested in hearing from us and being able to work on solutions collaboratively. So collaboration with the administration is what I am focused on, but not just silent agreement. I still want to represent the student body in those spaces.”

Chowdhury: “I have worked with a lot of people in various departments. I’ve worked with CGPS (Center for Global Programs and Services), and I’ve worked with ELI (English Language Institute). I have worked with the Orientation and Transition Programs (OTP). Currently, I’m working with Res Life. I have worked with different colleges. I work in the College of Engineering. I have a really good connection with VP José I would say. I feel like, for others, it might be an email to get an appointment. For me, it’s a walk-in because that’s the connection that I have built with them. Not only that, but I have a good connection with GSG (Graduate Student Government). So I’m trying to also like, incorporate GSG, and because GSG has the power, SGA has the budget together, I’m trying to work with them to work for the students. I’m also planning to have a representative with every advisory board. The university has a lot of advisory boards, for example, there’s a Resident Assistant advisory board for Res Life, there’s a Biden School advisory board, an International Student Advisor and a Presidential Council advisory board. I’m planning to have representatives from all. Right now, I would say I have a connection with most of the advisory boards. I’m trying to use the connection also so that it’s easier for us to work with, even on an RSO level. I have a good connection with MSA (Muslim Student Association). I have good connections with BSU (Black Student Union), PSA (Philippine Student Associations), APSA (Asian Pacfic Islander Associations). I’m planning to use all of them together so that it’s not just like the UD administrative department, it’s even those, like, you know, RSOs and stuff with these students. I feel like at the end of the day, the role of the student government should not just be limited to the administrative part. It should be using all, incorporating all to make something better for the students.”

Cavolo: “Well, we got really, really lucky. I think Dr. Carlson is awesome. We’ve gotten to have meetings with her before. Last year, one of our student government initiatives, which was open to the student body, was a video compilation of ‘If I were president for the day, what would I do?’ So we got to make videos of a bunch of our senators and some other students who came out actually sat in a room with Dr. Carlson and VP José watched through all of those videos, and then kind of talked about, ‘Okay, what can we do from this?’ One of the students mentioned that, like, during finals week, the library closes, and then people who don’t have a place to study or can’t study at home, where do they go? From that meeting, we were able to come up with the idea to open up the rooms. Like the multi-purpose rooms in Trabant, and upstairs in Perkins, those spaces open for students until, I think, it was like 3 a.m., so late-night study hours for the students. They provided snacks and we helped them with student feedback and the QR code. That’s just one example of where we’re taking information that students are giving us, making sure we sit down and have the administration look at it, and then sitting there and brainstorming with them, ‘Okay, what does this look like in action? And then, how can we make that happen?’ So I think continuing that relationship, especially since we’ve had some really good outcomes this far, would be the goal.”

Q: What is your primary platform? What are you running on?

Ziereis: “I kind of touched on sustainability earlier, and that’s something that I care about deeply, but I understand that that’s not something that a lot of students care about. Some other things that I really want to push, whether that’s through the Provost Office or through talking to the deans of the different colleges, are really doubling down on student-faculty engagement, and with that, student advising. I know that a lot of people have qualms with their advisors, and I know that it is true that not every professor should be an advisor, just by their own nature. So that is something that I’d like to work with the provost to see if there’s any more solutions that can be driven to make the faculty and the advisors actually care about their students and have more of a clue about what’s happening with them. Another thing is student safety. The pedestrian safety initiatives with the City of Newark and the University of Delaware is something that’s been front of mind through our initiatives this past year, and also with me tearing my hamstring last semester and breaking my ankle this semester has been accessibility, and making sure every student at the University of Delaware has an equal experience in terms of being able to get around campus, and then also student outreach and professional development opportunities. I’m not gonna mention too many things, but I think that’s a decent start.”

Chowdhury: “I would select pro-accountability, pro-student and make the student government truly student government — a government where students have input, where students can participate, and students know what they’re working with, what they’re expecting and who is their leader. Also, having a platform open for all, where everybody feels comfortable talking with their leaders. That would encourage them to run for student government in the future, something they can take pride in.”

Cavolo: “My primary goal is outreach. I’ve said it a bunch of times, and I’m gonna say it again, because it’s what’s important to me. Everyone has their own unique experiences at UD, they have their own involvement, but being a representative of the student body, being a student body president, you can’t do that. You’re not giving yourself the opportunity to go and experience what UD looks like, or what being a student here looks like to people who have different interests and have different involvements. I’m a psychology and criminal justice major. I have no idea what the engineering classes look like. I don’t have to take physics or anything, but doing things like collaborating with Engineers Without Borders, or collaborating with the puppy raisers club — things that aren’t necessarily my involvements in order to represent them in a way that they are going to be happy with — is what I want. We need to be in those spaces. That’s my main platform, taking all of the information and everything that we’re doing out of the Senate and bringing it to the student body. And like, ‘Let’s talk about this. What do you think about this? What’s something on campus that you’re having an issue with that I might never see because I’m not in the same spaces, classes, departments?’ So, outreach, period.”