Student Community Government holds inaugural election night as part of first-ever campus-wide elections

Tim Yean

Sports Editor

RIC students now more than ever have the ability to influence student government through the power of voting and Monday night’s open-door event gives them a glimpse at the campus’s future student leaders.

A replay of Student Community Government’s Election Night can be found here.

As a part of the historic opening of Student Community Government [SCG] executive council elections to the entirety of campus, SCG hosted Election Night: a chance for students to hear candidates speak and share their viewpoint on issues around campus at Gaige 100 on Monday, April 6.

Student Community Government presidential candidates (left to right) Briany Acosta, Malcolm Mann and Marcus Rocha (via video broadcast by Anchor TV)

The hour-long event acts as a huge step in terms of visibility and publicity to student government and its impact on campus life. Current SCG President Dante DiGregorio highlights the accessibility of Monday night’s event as it broadened SCG’s ability to be a resource for all students. 

“It’s probably one of the biggest things we’ve ever done,” DiGregorio told The Anchor following the event. “In terms of impact, we’ve gone from maybe 20 to 40 students being able to vote to over 6,000. That is an incredibly huge change and it’s progress that I’m really proud of.”

Candidate for secretary, Isabella Ba, currently serving as an at-large representative in SCG, echoed DiGregorio’s statement about the new, student-involved election system being an incredible step forward for student democracy at RIC. 

“Student community government is run by students and it’s for students,” Ba said. “Implementing their voice, their vote, within that process is so, so important.”

Planning for student-wide elections has been in progress since last summer, right as DiGregorio and SCG’s new executive council at the time began their work for the 2025-26 academic year. Following discussions with various committees and a vote from Student Parliament, plans were executed in time to feature elections with every student able to vote.

Planning and final execution were nearly all done with student vision and leadership. RIC Dean of Students Ted Zito, who was in attendance for the candidates’ speeches, was impressed by the student government’s leadership and guidance throughout the process.

“They kept me involved in terms of asking [for] my opinion,” Zito said. “All the credit goes to the students in SCG.”

Eight candidates running for the four executive board positions (president, vice president, secretary and treasurer) were asked to give speeches on why they should be elected, limited to five minutes per speech. The candidates were then asked two follow-up questions by DiGregorio and Vice President Tess Sullivan pertaining to key issues candidates may potentially face if they are elected.

“They are all so young and they have these crazy ideas, and they are all so driven,” Sullivan said. “[It] is so beautiful to see that they have this drive, and I just know it’s going to keep pushing SCG and more and more people.”

The candidates’ issues, Sullivan continued, expanded and brought to light other key problems on campus, such as readily available access to mental health resources or lack of information about on-campus events.

“Years ago, it’s just been like ‘we had to fix parking,’” Sullivan emphasized. “Now, I’ve heard a lot of themes about mental health, about transportation, and I really think [the candidates] really are listening to students.”

Not only have the candidates been able to declare their candidacy for their respective positions, but they have also had the ability to shadow the current executive council in an effort to learn their potential roles and duties in their future positions, as detailed by Financial Assistant for SCG, Nakita Guerrouxo.

“The overall preparedness of the role and the responsibilities it holds is what’s really impressive,” Guerrouxo highlighted.

SCG’s vote for the next executive council will begin Wednesday, April 8 and run through to the following Wednesday, April 15. Here are the students who spoke on April 6 and their respective positions they are officially registered to run for:

President: Briany Acosta, Marcus Rocha, Malcolm Mann

Vice President: Alexandra Howlett, Judy LaRose

Secretary: Zaria Lynn-Campbell, Isabella Ba

Treasurer: Joshua Mihalos

The Anchor’s editor-in-chief, Olivia Barone, has conducted interviews with all presidential and vice presidential candidates, which can all be viewed on anchorweb.org.