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Breton MacNeil and Sky Gorczynski are one of the three campaigns running for the positions of Student Association president and vice president this year. The two candidates are running on a platform of increasing mental health awareness, sexual assault prevention, meal access, increasing community impact and a revamp of the association.

MacNeil, a junior majoring in broadcast and digital journalism, is from Hampton, New Jersey. Gorczynski, a current freshman majoring in physics, is from Sutton, Massachusetts.

MacNeil said he always wanted to get involved with SA but didn’t see a good opportunity until this election cycle.

“I’ve always wanted, personally, to get involved with the student government here, but I always had a tough time finding the free time to do it,” MacNeil said. “I saw that I had more time this semester, and I decided to take the leap before it was too late.”

Gorczynski believes that because she had spent time in student government in high school, she could use her experience to help people at Syracuse feel more comfortable with campus.

“I thought it would be a good opportunity to expand my leadership, and I really want to see Syracuse be a place I feel at home and hopefully I can help others feel the same,” Gorczynski said.

For their main focuses, MacNeil and Gorczynski want to expand meal access, such as reopening Kimmel Dining Hall and returning meal swipes at the Schine Student Center. Along with meal access, the pair also expressed support for increasing awareness for sexual assault and mental health issues.

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Gorczynski’s primary focus is on sexual assault and mental health issues. She feels strongly about suicide prevention and believes that mental health issues are highly prevalent among the student population.

“I think mental health awareness is a big thing, and this school does a good job with it. They have plenty of resources that I hear about all the time. But it’s really (about) making kids comfortable to use those resources. Within the past year that I’ve been at Syracuse, I have learned so much more about how mental health can affect people and how prominent it is, especially our age group,” Gorczynski said.

The pair also expressed interest in increasing the awareness of what SA does among the student body to involve more students and thus get more done.

Gorczynski said she has noticed that many members of her sorority and other sororities were unaware of what SA does. After telling them about the SA, Gorczynski feels confident that they will begin to get more involved.

“We want to make sure Syracuse is a campus that everybody feels welcome regardless of background. We think the school is doing a good job, but we would like to push it further so everybody feels comfortable,” MacNeil said.

Published on April 7, 2022 at 12:57 am

Contact Danis: dwcammet@syr.edu