Presidential Candidates Debate Next SGLC Term

The second presidential debate for the Student Government of Loyola Chicago took place Thursday, March 27, the night before voting opened to the student body. The debate began at 7 p.m. in a packed Mundelein Center classroom.

Questions were provided by the moderators and audience members had the chance to submit questions for approval toward the end of the debate. Candidates discussed their plans for next year if elected and qualms they had with previous administrations. 

Third-year political science major Erin Tylutki, who’s currently serving as SGLC’s vice president, is running for president with running mate third-year political science major Haaziya Saiyed, who’s currently serving as the speaker of the senate. 

Their platform is based around the acronym ENGAGE — Equity, Network, Go Green, Accessibility, Graduate and Experience, The Phoenix reported. 

Last semester’s Chief Academic Affairs Officer Ronan Valera, a third-year majoring in political science, is running for president alongside Areej Khan, a third-year global studies and political science major and current chair of programming and outreach. 

First-year political science and sociology major Matthew Erlec and first-year finance major Cameron Wright are running for president and vice president. Their campaign is focused on transparency, The Phoenix reported. 

Erlec was impeached from his position as a senator last semester due to violations of SGLC’s Inclusion, Equity and Diversity Statement and SGLC officers’ ethical responsibility when he made discriminatory remarks about Islam, stating it was “based on violence” and that “Mohammad was a pedophile and a rapist.”

Erlec said the impeachment was an inaccurate portrayed conversation, and was found not responsible for the allegations of discriminatory harassment in an investigation from the Office of Equity and Compliance, The Phoenix reported. 

The Thursday night debate opened with a question regarding how candidates plan to foster connections with both students and administration on campus should they step into the role of president. 

Valera said he plans to appoint representatives for the business, nursing and education schools within the university, which he would meet with regularly to better understand what each area needs and how SGLC can better connect with students. He said they also plan to place an anonymous box in front of the SGLC office to hear from the student body more effectively. 

Valera said he has experience connecting with administrators on important issues because he had to build connections from scratch last year as SGLC’s inaugural chief academic affairs officer.

He also noted he was blocked from speaking with administrators due to an executive order, something he said only serves to slow down the process. He named the procedure of using executive orders as a whole as one thing his administration would change if elected. 

Erlec said he hopes to more directly involve students in the decision-making process by including them in meetings and improving SGLC’s visibility on campus. He said he hopes to make their work more clear to the average student. 

“Three years under the current administration, and it is difficult to pinpoint a single major policy or reform that has improved your student experience,” Erlec said. “Right now, the only way students have a say in government is through one election, once a year. That is not our form of democracy.”

Erlec said students should have a more direct line of communication with the administration, and he advocated for seeking out more students to attend events and discussions with administration rather than just hoping they show up. 

Tylutki said she and fourth-year Daniel Williams, the current SGLC president, have worked this year to improve the group’s visibility on campus but hopes to further that initiative next year if elected. She noted her experience speaking with administration in her role as vice president. 

“I even had the rare opportunity to have an email chain with the ever-elusive President Reed, and if you know anything about President Reed, he is a hard one to track down,” Tylutki said.

The next question regarded the high turnover rates of senators from both the Williams-Tylutki administration and the previous Alexandra Brist-Ben Bryan administration. Former Chief Justice Paige Gutierrez resigned from her role in 2023, citing poor mental health brought on by the culture of SGLC, The Phoenix previously reported.

Valera said he thinks it’s important to address the “culture shift” SGLC has gone through during the past two administrations, which he believes led to the high resignation rates. 

Erlec agreed and said the culture shift is a driving factor behind senatorial resignations. He also said he hopes to focus more on the qualifications of elected senators to ensure they’ll be productive in their positions, which he said he thinks will help reduce turnover. 

Tylutki said she thinks increasing communication with senators will help fix this issue, and she plans to get monthly feedback from the senate on their experience to help make effective change. 

“We can’t start a conversation if someone is walking out the door,” Tylutki said.

The Allocations Committee, which is responsible for planning out the distribution of the Student Activity Fund to fulfill funding requests from Registered Student Organizations, was under fire at the debate as attendees asked questions regarding how they’ll improve the process RSOs go through when requesting funding. 

The SAF has a set limit, and SGLC struggled to meet the funding requests of all RSOs last year, The Phoenix previously reported. Some organizations had their funding requests denied, and Valera said the biggest reason for that was improper paperwork.

In order to remedy this problem, Valera said he plans to further encourage or even mandate allocations budgeting workshops for new RSOs to ensure paperwork is completed properly so fewer funding requests have to be denied. He said the mistakes currently being made are avoidable and can be solved through collaboration and planning. 

Erlec, who was a part of the Allocations Committee during the 2024 fall semester before his impeachment, said he wants to appoint an individual to serve as an advocate for the RSOs. He said this person would work individually with the groups to get them through the funding request process.

“It is necessary to appoint a specific position, or even a temporary committee for the sake of reaching out to RSOs who have not received any, or very little funding, and have been treated quite unfairly, so that they can be walked through the process one-on-one on a regular basis of how to fill out paperwork that often is punitive for small technicalities,” Erlec said. 

Tylutki pointed out to the audience SGLC already has allocations committee office hours for RSOs and she plans to continue these efforts if elected. 

Multiple questions posed were related to concerns with the operation of previous administrations, and all three candidates shared their opinions on these fronts.

Erlec also said he wants to end internal elections to fill extra seats in the senate. Instead of hosting any sort of election, he said he would opt to leave those seats empty and use a two-thirds majority of whatever size the senate is. 

Valera said there’s a reason for internal elections, and he emphasized the importance of having a senatorial representative of the student body with members from every class. Tylutki seconded this concern and said it’s important for students to get involved whenever possible.

“This is kind of a training ground for leadership,” Tylutki said. “We do want to get as many people involved as possible. We do want to hear from as many voices as possible. So, I think that having multiple avenues to break into this organization and to kind of join this organization is extremely valuable to maximize the amount of voices heard.”

Additionally, Tylutki said doing away with general elections would be very difficult for the president to accomplish. 

“You should definitely be aware of the powers of the position you are running for,” Tylutki said. “Internal elections are written within our AOG, our Articles of Governance, which is kind of like our constitution if you will, and the president does not have the power to change the Articles of Governance, that lies completely with our representative body.”

A statement was published March 31 by third-year business major Khalid Hamdan, associate justice and spring election chair, regarding the conduct of candidates during the election season. 

“It would be dishonest — and frankly irresponsible — if we only celebrated the highs without naming what has also emerged during this campaign season,” Hamdan wrote in the statement. “A pattern of personal attacks, performative outrage and conduct that betrays the values of both this institution and this democratic process.”

He emphasized the importance of remaining formal when campaigning and urged candidates to remain true to the mission of SGLC.

“Integrity demands that we reject smear campaigns, character assassinations and the idea that leadership is best demonstrated by how cleverly one can tear down an opponent,” Hamdan wrote. 

Voting is open until 5 p.m. April 7 and can be done through a link sent to all eligible students’ email inboxes.

Editors note: This article was updated April 2 to include updated information on quote attributions and current SGLC roles.