Editor’s note: Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
The upcoming SGA election has two tickets for president and vice president of the student body.
Aidan Burke and Isabella Polombo are running together for president and vice president. Both have previous experience serving on senate. They are running on a platform of transparency and engagement.
Presidential Candidate Aidan Burke
Burke is a junior nursing student on the pre-med track and serves as vice president of SGA. Burke served as the senator of sustainability for a year.
Why are you running for president?
As the current vice president, a lot of the projects I am working on are long-term and I don’t want those to die. When I was given the opportunity to run with Isabella, I knew that we had a chance of making a huge impact, and I was excited to run with an equally qualified running-mate.
How has your experience at SGA prepared you to be president?
My time at SGA has taught me incredible public speaking skills that I would not have learned if I didn’t branch outside my major. Beyond this, I have gotten familiar with the process of making and voting on bills, as well as the fundamentals of student government.
What values do you feel student government has a responsibly to uphold?
SGA is responsible for allocating around $800,000 each academic year, so it is a massive power to hold. Every representative must have integrity and a strong work ethic, in addition to transparency and honesty. SGA is a powerhouse to get things done, and there is no advocacy without hard work.
How do you feel about the current state of SGA?
I love every member of SGA. They all have incredibly strong work ethics and are determined to make positive changes around campus. We have a lot of seniors this year, so we are losing some valuable members, but with the current political climate, a lot of freshmen are interested in joining, which is almost unheard of.
How do you feel about student engagement on campus? What are your plans to encourage more engagement?
I think student engagement is awful. It’s incredibly cliquey and a lot of students struggle to find their community. There are so many barriers that they have to jump through, whether that be the hoards of daily emails or the confusing nature of Mountain Lion Connect. It is not easy for students to find their crowd.
We often make excuses for our low student life rates, blaming it on the idea that we are a commuter campus. To beat this stigma and improve student engagement and retention, I want to create traditions that students look forward to annually, such as a campus-wide Christmas lighting and major concerts every semester.
What are your goals for the next year? What do you want to change?
Our plans focus on using our resources to increase student engagement and belonging. For example, Clyde’s Gastropub closes at 2 p.m. on Fridays. We should be utilizing that space and treating it like a bar by inviting student bands to perform there, which is organized to happen every month in Fall 2025.
We believe that recognizing clubs and organizations in a broader sense will increase their popularity. For example, 90% of freshmen attend Clyde’s Kickoff at the beginning of the fall semester, so we should be using that as an opportunity to collaborate with clubs and Greek life.
We also have finally begun building a relationship with Colorado College, and in collaborating with them, we have the opportunity to plan even larger events that bring together students around Colorado Springs.
BAC has had a pattern of running out of club funding during the first semester. Do you think this is a problem? If yes, how would you address this issue?
Yes, I feel that this pattern of blowing through club funding in the first semester is a problem. To solve it, SGA needs to reevaluate their funding approval process by focusing on the dollar to person ratio. Too often clubs pay for services like catering, which are not cheap, and end up with way too much food that ends up getting thrown away at the end of the night.
If clubs have stronger connections with Event Services, the director of finance and other SGA representatives, they will know how to plan events more efficiently with support along the way.
Vice Presidential Candidate Isabella Polombo
Polombo is a fourth-year professional communication major and serves as the senator of innovation for SGA. Prior to this position, she served as senator-at-large for a year and student-at-large for a year.
Why are you running for vice president?
Aidan and I both have so many projects that we need to finish to ensure that they will be safe long after we’re gone. For example, I created ClydeCon, a sustainability event celebrated for an entire week to increase community and belonging among students, and I want to ensure projects like that will be cemented and protected.
How has your experience at SGA prepared you to be vice president?
During my time at SGA, I have learned how to use my voice through the many bills, committees and resolutions that I have been a part of. I have acted as an advocate for students to the chancellors and board of regents, and seeing change on that higher level is really satisfying.
What values do you feel student government has a responsibly to uphold?
We have had student government leaders in the past who were only interested in building their resumes, not tending to the student population’s needs. With this, transparency is incredibly important. Students deserve open communication about policies and changes, and should have access to different budgets, allowing them to hold us accountable.
How do you feel about the current state of SGA?
During and post-COVID-19, SGA leaders had a difficult time increasing student involvement and belonging. Since then, we have had several leadership changes and are finally back on track for senators to cultivate passion and build stronger communities.
How do you feel about student engagement on campus? What are your plans to encourage more engagement?
I am a RA, and something we tell other RAs to encourage cultivating belonging is that students are experiencing a loneliness epidemic. I can’t help but think that this epidemic reaches beyond residential students. My major is not based on building community, and if I didn’t get involved with organizations like SGA, I would feel isolated along with most students.
I plan on collaborating with the dean of each college and organizing major-wide and minor-wide study events, bringing students together in a welcoming environment. This will help cultivate that community that so many students are missing.
What are your goals for the next year? What do you want to change?
I plan on supporting Aidan in his community building goals but also focusing on the academic side of things. UCCS is pretty disconnected from the general Colorado Springs community, and students deserve more internship and work opportunities. SEANs is needing a revamp, and resources like the career center are under-utilized.
BAC has a pattern of running out of club funding during the first semester. Do you think this is a problem? If yes, how would you address this issue?
The problem is that we are funding these club events without much consideration, but attendance and engagement are actually going down. This summer, before the fall semester starts, we plan on outreaching to many clubs and organizations to get students more familiar with their SGA representatives.
There is a huge disconnect between club leaders and BAC, which fuels this problem. SGA should be doing more to advocate for this relationship, as well as the relationship between clubs and event services.
Election details:
- The SGA debate will take place on March 5, at 6 p.m. in the Student Life Lounge.
- SGA voting will open Monday, March 10, and close Friday, March 14. Polling stations will be open every day from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. outside of the UC Big Cat Coffee or students can vote online.
Students can find the Q&A for presidential candidate Ben Moses and vice presidential Candidate Asher Early here.
Graphic via The Scribe archives.