Campus • News

CLC student elections open, but many candidates remain quiet

7 months ago
by Joy Gephart
3 min read
photo of candidate posters
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Campaign posters displayed outside student activities office. Photo by Joy Gephart.

College of Lake County student elections are underway. Students have until 9 p.m. March 11 to cast their online votes for several Student Government Association (SGA) board positions and to select the new Student Trustee.

This years’ candidates have been largely elusive with very few openly campaigning or visible on campus.

On March 2, Student Activities and Inclusion (SAI) hosted a tabling event open to all candidates. Students were given an opportunity to meet and question candidates for both the SGA and Student Trustee positions. The event was sparsely attended, with the most glaring absence being the candidates themselves. Only three of the nine students running for office were in attendance. The candidates who did attend were each running for a different position, giving students little opportunity to compare opposing platforms.

Despite the notable silence from most of the candidate field, the active candidates still feel this election is important.

Saffa Sahki, candidate for SGA President, attended the event with her hand-made poster board communicating her campaign’s focus on “involvement,” “advocacy,” and “representation.” She said in a later interview with The Chronicle that student representation is important to help direct school funds to areas where students have genuine interest or need.

“Students should care about this election because every time they are paying money towards their tuition… part of it goes to student activities and inclusion to help fund clubs and organizations,” Sahki said. “So, when you vote and you choose the people who are representing you in those positions, you’re actively putting your money where your mouth is.”

CLC Student Government election QR. Provided by SAI.

The two other visible candidates are Student Trustee candidate Allison Bolisay, who attended the tabling event alongside Sahki, and SGA Vice Presidential candidate Emily Alarcon-Santiago who’s posters can be seen prominently across the Grayslake campus.

When asked why she wanted to run for student government, Bolisay said it is the CLC community that inspired her.

“Our student body is filled with a lot of motivated students and a lot of leaders as well,” Bolisay said. “Just seeing a community and seeing how eager our students are to make changes makes me want to also contribute to the growth of that, and to allow everybody to know and to continue to know that we have a voice at the school, because it’s really important that we put our voices out there.”

Students who wish to participate in elections can use the election QR code provided by SAI and vote online using their student email address. All votes must be cast my 9 p.m. cst.

Candidates include:

Student Trustee
Allison Bolisay
Izabella Roberts

SGA President
Miroslav Sretenovic
Kimberly Soto
Saffa Sakhi

SGA Vice-President
Leocadie Crysteva Evina Bidoung
Emily Alarcon-Santiago

SGA Treasurer
Pia Condori Saenz
Luis Angel Baca Medina

The Chronicle reached out to all student government candidates to give them the opportunity to comment on their campaigns and the election. However, no additional candidates could be reached for comment.

Winners will be officially announced at SGA/Student Trustee Election Ratification Ceremony March 12 at 1 p.m. in B105 at the Grayslake campus.

Candidate Profiles
Text: Saffa Sahki, SGA President Candidate Major: Marketing Favorite study snack: Chex Mix Campaign theme song: Perks of Being a Sunflower. Unique thing students should know about Saffa: Saffa has been in a hot air balloon Finish this sentence: Student Government Should Be…“Representative of all students.”
Text: What obstacles do you anticipate, and how will you navigate them? “Sometimes what students want may not always be attainable right at the moment. It might be a longer process and it may go past what my presidency term would be… If there’s something I see that could end up being a long term plan or there’s an issue that people are noticing that needs to be adjusted over time, I want to lay the strong foundation to ensure that actually happens and as much as I can do within my term to continue that afterwards.” If you could change just one thing about campus immediately, what would it be? “It would be involvement in general from students in extracurricular, after class activities.” Which student populations do you believe are currently underserved on campus? What do you think should be done? “Any student who’s not at the Grayslake campus, because Southlake and Lakeshore don’t get as much activity from clubs and organizations, including SGA… So that’s something in my term I want to help create and it’s something we’ve been working on” Why should students care about this election and vote? “Students should care about this election because every time they are paying money towards their tuition… part of it goes to student activities and inclusion to help fund clubs and organizations. So when you vote and you choose the people who are representing you in those positions, you’re actively putting your money where your mouth is.”
Text: Allison Bolisay, Student Trustee Candidate Major: Communication sciences, goal Speech Pathology Campaign theme song: I have a dream by Abba Favorite study snack: Muddy Buddies Unique thing students should know about Allison: She does her own nails Finish this sentence: Student government should be… a community
Text: How do you plan to implement your proposals? “To know that they have another student who is going to listen to them, help guide them, and encourage them to speak out, so then their voices are heard.” What obstacles do you anticipate, and how will you navigate them? “It can be difficult because our student body is really huge, so it might be difficult for students to even know that this student trustee is like even there for them to talk to or and I also know that there are a lot of students on campus that are part time or on Zoom, and they're not really in person, so creating maybe videos or ways to reach out to those who aren't initially on campus to know that even though they're taking online classes. They're still a big part of our community, even though they are not here physically.” If you could change just one thing about campus immediately, what would it be? “...It would be a really good idea to maybe make those signs have a Spanish version.” (talking about the signs that are supposed to guide students, like the “Circulation” sign at the circulation desk) Why should students care about this election and vote? “At the end of the day, these positions act as that liaison to inevitably help their voices be heard.”
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About the author

Joy Gephart

Joy Gephart

Joy Gephart is a legal studies major with a passion for research and storytelling. She plans to pursue a career in victim advocacy and international human rights law, while hopefully reporting part-time. She has worked at The Chronicle for two years, serving as a reporter, managing editor and now editor-in-chief. Outside of journalism, she writes fiction and expresses her creativity through art and music.

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