John Jankovic and Serena Fazal, two Syracuse University sophomores, announced their campaign on Wednesday for Student Association president and vice president, respectively.

Jankovic and Fazal are the second pair of candidates to publicly announce their bids for SA leadership in the 2018 campaign, which they declared via Instagram on Wednesday. Kaitlyn Ellsweig and Ryan Houck — who would both be SA newcomers if elected president and vice president, respectively — declared their candidacy on Monday.

Jankovic, a sophomore political science and psychology major, has been involved in SA since his freshman year. He’s served in the organization as an assembly representative and historian, and has worked on various SA committees. Jankovic is also the vice president of the SU chapter of Democracy Matters, a non-partisan political advocacy organization, and is a student representative on the SU Alumni Association Board of Directors.

Fazal, a sophomore Spanish and psychology major, hasn’t had formal SA experience. She’s currently vice president of the Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi sorority and historian of the Alpha Chi Sigma chemistry fraternity.

Jankovic said he and Fazal bring “diversity” and “variety” to campus leadership.

“We’re both involved in so many various communities and areas on campus, and so we wanted a platform where we could best represent students,” Jankovic said.

The pair said that if elected, they plan to put students first. Their campaign platform is divided into four pillars: accessibility, advocacy, transparency, and diversity and dialogue.

Among the specific initiatives under those four pillars include plans to ensure work-study grant opportunities, create a coalition with other student government bodies and establish a disaster relief organization to help communities globally, according to the campaign’s Facebook page.

Jankovic and Fazal said they were best friends who contemplated plans to run for office while on SU’s December Puerto Rico relief trip. Jankovic helped organize the trip, and Fazal was a participant.

The trip helped the pair realize how well they worked as a team, Jankovic said.

Jankovic and Fazal said they plan to be active on social media in the weeks leading up to the April election. They also said they want to make appearances in classes and talk to students on campus.

Fazal said she and Jankovic would be open to speaking to students if they came to the campaign with questions or concerns.

Though the candidates are only sophomores, Jankovic said they both believed it’s “never too soon” to run for SA leadership.

“Why should we wait for our senior year?” Jankovic asked. “Let’s do this now.”

Published on March 22, 2018 at 3:38 pm

Contact Jordan: jmulle01@syr.edu | @jordanmuller18