Nineteen students were elected April 26 to serve on next year’s Undergraduate Student Government, but almost every candidate ran uncontested.

Only four positions had more than one candidate.

St. Thomas senior Ryan Foster, the current student body president, thinks each year presents its own struggles during elections.

“I think one of the biggest challenges we have is letting students know we have these roles available,” Foster said. “We have a variety of roles that need to be filled every year, and some may run unopposed — that’s just the reality of it.”

As for the positions that were not filled, they will be open to incoming first-year students and any current student who wishes to run.

Results were posted on the organization’s Facebook page April 27. Below are the 2018-2019 executive board results:

Bisrat Bayou, student body president

Bisrat Bayou is currently a junior studying neuroscience with a minor in public health and was junior class senator for the 2017-2018 school year.

Bayou ran for president because he saw it as the most influential position to create change for the good of the university’s students, which influenced his campaign slogan, “Power by the people.”

Next year, Bayou wants to further develop three of the four initiatives USG has started: diversity and inclusion, academics and student well-being.

“I really want to focus on what we can do to make the student experience better via USG help. Especially with those three being the most common aspects of every college experience,” Bayou said.

Bayou ran against two other opponents: Keanu Daley and Jordan Hanson.

Daley and Bayou were roommates this year, but according to Bayou, they were in a mutual understanding that the election would be a healthy competition.

“It’s really cool to see other people — especially people of color — seeing him as a brother of mine and seeing him run against me,” Bayou said. “It was empowering.”

Bayou is also involved with Summit Singers and African Nations Student Alliance, serves as vice president of Black Empowerment Student Alliance and is a resident adviser in Ireland Hall.

Logan Monahan, executive vice president

Sophomore Logan Monahan is a neuroscience major and served as vice president of administrative affairs for the 2017-2018 school year.

Monahan ran for executive vice president because he wanted to take on a more active role in USG and wants to facilitate the senate in a way that brings them all together.

“Last year, I saw a lot of different initiatives trying to be pushed through at the same time, where if they were collaborated together, they could’ve gotten through a lot faster,” Monahan said.

Monahan is excited to see what the new school year will bring after the past year’s formation of new committees such as the special funding committee, which will use the leftover USG funds toward bigger projects.

“With every council you get new ideas, different passions and that’s the exciting part going into the new year,” he said. “Just to see who has big ideas, who has these passions that are going to drive new initiatives into the next year.”

Monahan ran against one opponent, junior Anthony Preston.

Jacob Fette, vice president of administrative affairs

Jacob Fette is currently a sophomore at St. Thomas and will be graduating after next year with a political science major and a minor in justice and peace studies.

This past school year, Fette was the Union Park neighborhood senator.

In the past year, Fette said he was hearing about a lot of problems but was unable to do much to solve them.

This influenced his decision to run for an executive position.

As the vice president of administrative affairs, Fette wants to increase student awareness of USG as well as increase the transparency between the Board of Trustees’ decisions and students.

“A lot of students don’t know why or what motivates (the Board of Trustees) decisions, and then when they hear about their decisions that affect them, they immediately jump to ‘oh wow they’re trying to waste our money,’ but they’re not,” Fette said. “They have our best interest at heart. We just don’t always know the reasons behind their decisions.”

Fette wants to carry over the work he did as Union Park neighborhood senator into his new position for the coming school year.

He hopes to create more unity between students living off campus and the permanent residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.

“I’m kind of carrying that one over because I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished as much as I would had liked to this year,” Fette said.

Fette ran uncontested for the vice president of administrative affairs position.

Michael “Sully” Sullivan, vice president of academic affairs

Michael Sullivan is a first-year student studying business finance and was this year’s freshman class senator.

Sullivan decided to run for vice president of academic affairs after sitting in on the academic committee meetings over the past year.

In the 2018-2019 school year, Sullivan hopes to showcase the different academic initiatives happening in USG, such as tutors and academic counseling.

“Showing students that we have all these resources for academics available and students are able to use these resources,” Sullivan said. “As well as seeing a physical space for the Center of Student Achievement.”

Sullivan is also involved with the Ashoka Changemaking team and works as a student employee in the CreateSpace.

Sullivan ran uncontested for the position.

Derek Nauman, vice president of financial affairs

Derek Nauman is a first-year student with a double major in political science and history.

Nauman served as the 2017-2018 freshman residential senator.

Over the past year, Nauman served as a liaison for the Board of Trustees Finance and Audit Committee.

Sitting in on this committee inspired Nauman to take the next step in USG and run for the vice president of financial affairs position.

In the coming year, Nauman wants to continue the work the current vice president of financial affairs is doing.

“Internally, financial-wise, I want to streamline the system we have now,” Nauman said.

Nauman ran uncontested for the position.

Malcolm Lawson, vice president of diversity

Malcolm Lawson is in his sophomore year and studying political science.

Lawson ran for vice president of diversity because he wanted to become more active with the St. Thomas community and engage a wider variety of students and clubs.

His opponent was junior Sylvester Nwosuji.

In this position, Lawson wants to implement the academic concept of “brave spaces,” which will facilitate open and honest communication between people who may or may not have similar views with one another.

“Brave spaces offer a chance to challenge yourself, challenge others a little bit. There’s no judgement, no hate, no shame,” Lawson said. “If you come in and speak your mind, it’s not always going to be with like-minded people. You might have people with difference of opinion.”

Lawson would also like to see an increase in the number of students of color on campus, which according to Lawson, sits around 13 to 15 percent.

“If we want to stand out as an elite university, diversity is where it’s going to have to come from,” Lawson said.

Lawson is also involved in Black Empowerment Student Alliance, Campus Life, St. Thomas football and basketball and will be joining the Linkages program next year as a mentor to first-year students.

Shonni Krengel, vice president of public relations

Shonni Krengel is a junior at St. Thomas and a psychology major and justice and peace studies and sociology double minor.

Krengel was the 2017-2018 vice president of public relations and was re-elected for the 2018-2019 school year.

She decided to rerun for this position because she enjoyed the work she did the past year.

This past year, Krengel worked with internal advertisements and social media posts for the senate, but she hopes to expand her work more externally in the upcoming year.

“I want to help — on top of what I’m already doing — by helping clubs get their word out through resources like the printing services, where they can make like little flyers, or how to make a digital banner,” Krengel said.

Krengel ran uncontested for the position and is excited for the team she will be working with next year.

“We have a great e-board. I think we will do a lot of great things this upcoming year. I’m glad I’m going to be a part of the executive board and the general council,” Krengel said.

Below is the list of the elected 2018-2019 general council:

Senior Class President – Sadie Buckel
Senior Class Senator – Nick Guggemos
Junior Class President – Chioma Uwagwu
Junior Class Senator – Jordan Carew
Junior Class Senator – Madeleine Richards
Sophomore Class President – Abby Johnson
Sophomore Class Senator – Abby Gureski
Sustainability Committee Chair – Emma Smith (opponent was Nathan Bennett)
Diversity Committee Chair – Viridiana Areralo Martinez
Spirituality Committee Chair – Derrick Diedrich
Legislative Affairs Senator – Jack Joa
Transfer Senator – Anna Rauzi

Althea Larson can be reached at lars2360@stthomas.edu