Sens. Thieldens Elneus, Jessica Scanlon and Carly Gomes are running uncontested in the upcoming Student Government election. Elneus is running for Student Body president, Scanlon for vice president and Gomes for treasurer. The three senators are friends as well as running mates, and they are excited to hear the election results on Friday, Feb. 27.
“I’ve wanted to be president of SG since I first came to FGCU,” said Elneus, chair of the Appropriations Committee, a body in SG that is responsible for managing school funds. “I’m really passionate about representing the student body here as fairly as possible.”
Scanlon serves as pro tempore in the Senate, which puts her in charge of managing SG meetings and ensuring that all Senate seats remain occupied. She also serves as the interim Senate president in the event that Lisa Ray, the current Senate president, is unable to attend a meeting.
“I’m very close with Carly and Thieldens,” Scanlon said. “We’ve all wanted to run since we were freshmen.” “We’re a team and we’re united by the fact that we really care about the students here. We’ve noticed that in the past, the executive branch of SG didn’t meet very frequently, and lots of students weren’t sure what SG even did. We want to fix that by being more transparent and more attentive to students’ needs.”
Like Elneus, Gomes presently serves on the Appropriations Committee as vice chair. She notes that her background in fund allocations will be an asset once she becomes treasurer.
“Thieldens, Jessica and I were always prepared to run together, but honestly, we were not expecting to run uncontested,” Gomes said. “It’s very exciting. We have big plans for when our positions become official on April 1st.”
There will be a Q&A session with the three candidates at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, in the Cohen Center Ballroom. Students will be able to vote for executive leaders and SG senators starting Tuesday, Feb. 24, in the Cohen Center room 247. The polls will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Feb. 24 through 25, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 26. The election results will be announced officially at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, in the Cohen Center fishbowl. The event is open to any students who would like to attend.
Students can submit questions for the candidates to [email protected] or [email protected].
