Voting for the Illinois Student Council elections starts Tuesday, and six pairs of candidates are running for the student body presidential and vice presidential seats. The Daily Illini sat down with each ticket to better understand the candidates.

Alex Belanger (president), Carter Blount (VP)

Alex Belanger and Carter Blount started working together in ISC this past year and hope to step into the roles of president and vice president in the coming year.

Belanger, a sophomore in LAS, has served on ISC for the past two years, most recently as the deputy speaker. Blount, a sophomore in AHS, has served on ISC for the past year and has experience chairing an ad hoc committee. In their administration, the pair hope to expand on the work they’ve begun in ISC.

“We thought it was really important that we continue the work that we already started this past year,” Belanger said. “So we thought, who better than us to make sure that that work keeps going?”

They are campaigning on prioritizing financial accessibility, with goals of cutting down on general education requirements and creating a meal credit donation system to address food insecurity.

“The biggest thing we want to do is tear down barriers to education,” Belanger said.

The pair further outlined their plan to reduce general education requirements.

“We’ve talked to people in the Office of the Provost that are on board with the idea,” Blount said. He added that, following approval from the provost, they would work with the senate to meet their objective.

Belanger and Blount also intend to secure a mascot for the University by establishing a task force and creating a proposal for the Board of Trustees, according to their candidate profile.

The pair believe their experience in ISC makes them uniquely prepared for the seats of president and vice president.

“One huge strength that we bring to the table is that we’re going to be able to hit the ground running on day one,” Belanger said. “Every other candidate in recent memory has had to learn the ropes, and we won’t really have to go through that process.”

Blount agreed, noting that they won’t have to undergo the learning curve that can take months for new presidents and vice presidents.

“A lot of people misunderstand what ISC can do and what they can’t do, and we know what we can do,” Blount said. “We have that relationship with administrators already.”

Katie Comrov (president), Julianna Longo (VP)

“When I was in fifth grade, I ran for student body president of my elementary school, and it kind of ignited my passion for helping the student body,” said presidential candidate Katie Comrov, sophomore in Media. Her running mate, Julianna Longo, is a junior in LAS.

Together, Comrov and Longo bring a broad set of experiences to the table and are enthusiastic about supporting diverse student perspectives.

Their campaign features three main pillars: communication, safety and academic achievement.

“My running mate … and I decided that to enhance the experience at school, the administration’s communication with students needs to be stronger,” Comrov said.

To strengthen communication, Comrov and Longo plan to create suggestion boxes through which students can voice their concerns to ISC and University faculty.

“The second pillar is safety,” Comrov said. “We want the streets to be well-lit, we want students to feel safe going home.”

The pair plan to ensure safe transportation to and from all campus locations, including bars. Also included in their safety plan is the goal of creating sleeping pods, or designated spaces where students can decompress.

“Our last pillar is academic achievement,” Comrov said. “We’re here to learn, right?”

In pursuit of this goal, the ticket promises increased charging stations, access to late-night study spaces and a redesigned textbook lending system.

“I feel like something that’s really important is advocacy for the students,” Comrov said. “What I mean by advocacy is representing the studentsʼ concerns and advocating for better student experiences.”

Gabi DalSanto (president), Anjali Kumar (VP)

“I think we had an interesting way of becoming running mates,” said Gabi DalSanto, ISC presidential candidate and sophomore in ACES.

DalSanto met Anjali Kumar, sophomore in LAS, through mutual connections who said they would make a good running pair. After talking for two hours the first time they met, the future running mates realized their goals were aligned.

“We have three main platform points of things that we want to see changed within the University,” DalSanto said. “There’s sustainability, student wellness and student rights.”

The ticket hopes to address sustainability by advocating for University divestment from the fossil fuels industry. They also intend to implement compost bins and specialized recycling bins on campus.

According to their candidate profile, the pair plan to protect student wellness by making fentanyl testing strips available in Greek Life houses and University health centers. They also aim to offer abortion pills at McKinley Health Center.

“Working with administrators and working with the school, rather than trying to be rivals of administrators … is really our biggest plan of action,” Kumar said.

For their third platform point, student rights, DalSanto and Kumar plan to work with University housing to prevent another housing crisis and prioritize the safety of students with disabilities.

“We believe we’re the most progressive ticket that’s running and we’re really glad that we have the opportunity to be able to share that with the student body,” Kumar said.

The pair emphasized the importance of voting in student council elections, noting that a very small percentage of the student population does so.

“The last president and vice president won with just about 2,000 votes,” Kumar said. “Whereas if administrators see that the student body president and vice president are winning with, say, 10,000 votes, it makes what we have to say … a lot more impactful.”

DalSanto added that voting for all offices and referendum questions on the ballot is important.

“We’re seeing a lack of engagement with ISC currently, and to be the student voice, we need to make sure that we’re engaging with the students and the students are engaging with us,” DalSanto said.

Patrick Holt (president), Nina O’Dea (VP)

Candidates Patrick Holt and Nina O’Dea, both sophomores in ACES, say they have seen problematic changes on campus since their days as freshmen. Repairing these problem areas is central to their campaign.

“I think a lot of students felt that they didn’t get their voices heard in relation to these changes, and that spurred me to want to be the voice for them,” O’Dea said.

The pair were concerned by the administration’s changes to the Student Code this summer, which changed standards for punishment of student expression and led to penalties for multiple student groups.

Holt and O’Dea commented on recent changes to University statutes that have inspired concerns about academic freedom.

“The Board of Trustees is currently considering changes to academic freedom, which will basically make it impossible for students without a masterʼs to either be TAs or participate in research,” Holt said. “If it goes through, it is going to be a massive problem for all the students in our different science programs.”

O’Dea mentioned that another alarming change for them was the loss of student advisory boards that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the McKinley advisory board.

“With the loss of the advisory boards, there was a loss of community for student voice,” O’Dea said. “I think our big goal really is to get as many voices as possible actually out there.”

Holt and O’Dea also noted their intent to work with McKinley to expand reproductive healthcare by ensuring access to contraceptives.

Additionally, the ticket supports University divestment from the fossil fuels industry and hopes to present a plan to the Chancellor about sustainable investment opportunities.

“One of our first actions will be to set up a task force within the student council to give students an opportunity to come up with a plan to present to the incoming chancellor … for how the students think the University could best switch its investments to more sustainable and ethical industries,” Holt said.

Holt currently serves on the University Senate and is a member of the Student Organization Resource Fee Board. He emphasized their partnership’s willingness to work with other governing bodies to meet their goals.

“What makes our campaign different is … cooperation and community will be at the absolute center of our administration,” Holt said. “You can’t change anything if you’re just doing it by yourself.”

Piotr Kierner (president), Julia Smith (VP)

Candidates Piotr Kierner and Julia Smith met in chemistry class and have applied their STEM backgrounds to public service ever since.

Kierner, freshman in LAS, and Smith, junior in LAS, have been involved in research and completed multiple internships in their fields. They believe their work and research experiences will bring unique insight to the presidency.

“Me and Julia both have vast backgrounds in internships and research,” Kierner said. “We’re both very heavily invested in these opportunities and we think that the school does not provide nearly enough support for the students when it comes to getting internships.”

They are concerned about the disproportionately small number of jobs available for the magnitude of the student population. They plan to expand the career opportunities available to students. Smith said that she notices that most career fairs are presented to students of Grainger and Gies and hopes to extend equal opportunities to other colleges.

“We’d also want to talk about revamping some of the introductory courses like LAS 101 and 102,” Smith said. “We want to have it be more professional development oriented.”

With a reconfigured curriculum, the pair expect these courses to better equip students to secure jobs and internships.

The candidates also plan to support smaller RSOs who have historically received less attention and funding from the school.

“I think that the smaller RSOs are really the center of culture in the school,” Kierner said. “If only the top 10 RSOs survive, I think the school would lose a lot of what makes it so great.”

According to their candidate profile, Kierner and Smith plan to increase awareness of campus safety resources, such as those offered by McKinley. They also want to improve the SafeRides program, which offers on-demand rides to students in areas not served by bus lines.

“We acknowledge that we don’t know everything,” Kierner said. “We would like to go into the administration with a point that we are willing to help with anything.”

Noah King (president), Carter Lee (VP)

“Some would call it a flash of lightning,” said Noah King, junior in FAA, recalling the moment he decided to run for student council president. “I just thought, what if I was president, and then I googled it and learned that I could.”

Carter Lee, a graduate student studying natural resources and environmental sciences, shared a similarly grand story of inspiration.

“I was primarily motivated by a desire to fix every problem on campus immediately, wielding the immense executive power of student body vice president,” Lee said.

King and Lee boasted a number of ambitious goals they plan to execute while in office.

“Overall, my goal is to recreate the campus in my own image,” King said. “We’re thinking about building a dam over Boneyard Creek that would rival the Hoover Dam, and produce ten times more electricity.”

Lee plans to use his background in environmental science to inform their goals of making the campus more sustainable.

“We have a grander vision than just a single year,” King said. “We’re looking at a millennia-long institution of changes that we’re going to create for this University, and the world at large.”

Though the pair noted the competence of past administrations, they also believe previous ISC presidents were not ambitious enough in making change.

“We are going to usher in a golden age at the University of Illinois,” King said. “I think we need to leverage the power of the Illinois student government in a way that has not been done before.”

Tuesdayʼs election

President and vice president aren’t the only offices students can vote for in this election. The ballot also includes college representatives, senators, student trustees and several referendum questions.

Voting starts Tuesday at noon and closes Thursday at midnight. Students can access OneIllinois and cast their votes here.

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