Wichita State students can now vote for next year’s student body president and vice president and student senators, as well as three Student Government Association constitutional amendments. 

The election is open Monday, April 6, at 8 a.m. and will close Wednesday, April 8, at 5 p.m. 

Students can vote via a link sent to their email or at the following in-person voting locations: 

• April 6 and 7, 5:30 to 7 p.m., in the Shocker Dining Hall 
• April 8, 12 to 2 p.m. in the Rhatigan Student Center East Atrium 

Student body presidential and vice presidential candidates

The two tickets for student body president and vice president are Mason Fouquet with Nazanin Kasirosafar, and Jayden Island with Anoushka.

Island is a junior majoring in philosophy and Raju is a senior biomedical engineering and biology student. 

Island currently serves as a student advocate in SGA and was a senator last year. Raju’s time in SGA started this year as the health and wellness director under the executive branch.

Fouquet, a junior in business administration, and Kasirosafar, a senior biological sciences major, have each served less than a year on the Student Government Association. 

Fouquet serves as a business senator on the government oversight committee and Kasirosafar serves as a Liberal Arts and Sciences senator and chair of the academic affairs committee.

Both tickets prioritized SGA transparency in their campaigns. Fouquet and Kasirosafar are advocating for better pathways for students to communicate with SGA, while Island and Raju said they want to make SGA more casual so that students can feel less pressure or confusion around its processes. 

During Thursday’s debate, Island’s ticket differed with Fouquet’s about how to go about supporting minority groups on campus. Kasirosafar was out of the country on a vacation planned before she entered the race, Fouquet said, and wasn’t at the debate.

Fouquet said that all groups should be looked at equally. 

“We’re all students overall,” Fouquet said. 

Raju said “Equality is not the same thing as equity,” pointing out that not everyone has the same starting place. 

Students can find out more about Island, Raju and Fouquet, Kasirosafar from their interviews with The Sunflower. Voters can also read about the first and second debate. The debates are on SGA’s YouTube channel under the “Live” tab. 

Constitutional amendments

The first of the three constitutional amendments would change language to clarify SGA’s definition of a freshman senator. The proposed definition states that freshmen are undergraduate students who are entering college for the first time. 

This definition also excludes prior transfer or dual-enrollment credits, meaning that a student who completed their freshman year of college in high school could still run for freshman senator in their first year at Wichita State. 

The second amendment makes a change to SGA’s Judicial Branch’s section of the constitution. The new version adds the Student Organization Code of Conduct to the list of things that the student supreme court will hear appeals on. 

“The Court shall hear appeals from Traffic Court, Parking Appeals, Student Organization Code of Conduct and Library Court of Appeals and shall render decisions in these cases,” the new language would say. 

The third and final amendment would alter the underserved senator seats. 

Following the change in designation from the Kansas State Finance Council, which stated that student governments are “quasigovernmental,” SGA now has to comply with state policies against diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. 

If approved, underserved senators would change to at-large senators, and they no longer have to be a part of underserved communities, such as the LGBTQ+ or disabled communities. 

Underserved senators are still on the ballot, but if the amendment is approved, the elected underserved senators would be changed to at-large senators.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story included Kevin Dunn as a candidate for a liberal arts and sciences senator. The Sunflower was notified that Dunn was removed from the ballot for not providing the Election Commission a financial report for his campaign. This story has been updated with Dunn removed.