SGA Election Fills Four Senate Seats
The Student Government Association (SGA) announced Zachius Coleridge-Taylor, Stephanie Balacco, Tyler Harris and Ahmaad Green as their fall of 2018 senators.
During the election, SGA sent out an email encouraging all the students at UNCP to vote and choose between seven candidates running for four open senator seats in the organization. The seven candidates were as follows: Stephanie Balacco, Evan Castro, Zachius Coleridge-Taylor, Daquarius Gentry, Ahmaad Green, Tyler Harris and Aschalew Teka had their campaigns put into a “candidate handbook” that was also provided in an email.
Four candidates stepped forward to speak to the Pine Needle about what they plan to do if they were elected SGA senator.
Although he didn’t take a seat after the elections, Castro was a freshman who advocated for recycling. He hoped to put out tables in the UC Mall to encourage students to recycle.
“Many students want to recycle but some don’t know how to,” he said.
Castro believes if students had more knowledge on what materials to recycle, the ‘green campus’ will expand.
Even though recycling is an important factor for the school, the highest votes at the end of the election went to Taylor, who recieved 374, who was advocating for accessible parking on campus.
Taylor, junior, believes ‘the voice matters’ and he can make a difference by being in SGA.
Taylor hopes to have students have more accessibility in parking that are closer to their classroom buildings.
Next to parking, Taylor also wants to extend library hours, expand the outreach program and add more coin converters in residential halls.
Junior Zachius Coleridge-Taylor takes senator seat.
PN Photo/ Octavia Johnson
“This is my home, of course, when living here, you want to see changes,” he said. “I want to help other individuals and be a mouth piece for them.”
According to the candidate handbook, Balacco, who received the second highest vote total of 361, is a non-traditional student, returning to college after working as a paramedic for just under eight years.
She volunteered to help students to vote and campaigned for easier access to counseling services on campus, easier access to college textbooks and more support for commuter and non-traditional students.
Harris and Green were tied with 346 votes and filled the last two chairs.
Freshman Ahmaad Green also takes senator seat. PN Photo/ Octavia Johnson
Green, freshman, was introduced to SGA by Justice Boyd. Green realized he could help others by being a part of SGA. Like Taylor being the ‘mouth piece,' Green feels that he is the “voice of the people."
“I here to bring what the people want me to bring,” he said. “I’m not here for myself, I’m here to make changes for everyone here on campus.”
Green wants to help students to see where their fees are going to or a breakdown of what they’re paying for. He plans to use his vocal approach to help other students’ with their issues and concerns by what he learned from his upbringing.
“I came up in a house hold where you had to voice your opinion if you want something done,” Green said. “Catching signs wasn’t a thing in my house, you had to be blunt.”
Harris was a senior who used to play football at a junior college. He wants to help the school and the students get a voice.
“I want to help students while I’m still in college,” he said.
Harris hopes to have all the emergency polls fixed, have students more involved in the community and get more students to use their voices more.
Junior Tyler Harris takes third seat in the SGA Senate.
PN Photo/ Octavia Johnson
