Sorbe and Ireland develop campaigns for SGA president

At the first Student Government Association meeting of the semester on Jan. 23, two senators announced their plans to run for executive office.

Senator Josh Sorbe is campaigning with running mate Madison Green, and senator Marcus Ireland is campaigning with running mate Caleb Munce.

I.M. for You

Ireland, a junior political science, criminal justice and philosophy triple major, has been on the SGA Senate for three years. In that time, he has been a committee secretary, a committee vice chair and now serves as a committee chair. He also was the Project Main Street coordinator and was a Vermillion City Council student representative.

Ireland said he believes he’s qualified to be president because of his extensive SGA resume.

“Those kinds of experiences have helped build my communication skills and have helped me build my presence among the students and among the community,” Ireland said.

Munce, a junior political science major, was recently sworn-in as a senator-at-large at the SGA meeting on Jan. 23.

Ireland said he chose Munce as his running mate because of the way he has voiced student concerns in the past concerning the General Activity Fee and the sexual assault town hall.

“I knew that he was not going to be afraid to butt heads if he had to,” Ireland said. “Sometimes, if you want to be the students’ voice, you have to be able to butt heads when the students want to butt heads.”

The team’s campaign slogan is “I.M. for You,” which uses an acronym of their two last names.  The slogan ties in with their main platform of awareness.

“I want students to be more aware of what Senate does, who is on Senate and when they can speak with the senators,” Ireland said.

Although Ireland wants students to feel comfortable coming to senators with concerns, he said he also wants to reach out to students.

“It’s part of our commitment as student representatives to make the time to go out to the students and not force them to come to us,” Ireland said.

Munce said he wants conversation between the SGA president and the students to be more direct.

“Student voices could be channeled better,” Munce said. “I believe that students could be made more aware of what SGA can do for them.”

A New Era

Sorbe, a sophomore political science and business administration double major, has been involved with SGA for two years. He has been the student committee chair as well as a faculty senate community
service representative.

“I decided to run for SGA president because I knew that there are a lot of opportunities on campus that I’ve been afforded and I’m incredibly thankful for that,” Sorbe said. “I want to take the knowledge that I have and be able to spread it to students that don’t necessarily have access to that same knowledge.”

Green, a junior English and criminal justice double major, was sworn-in as a senator-at-large at the SGA meeting on Jan. 23. Sorbe said he chose Green to be his running mate because of her passion.

“I can see the passion and the conviction in her voice and I knew that I wanted to run with somebody that cared about the students as much as I did,”
Sorbe said.

Green said their campaign is focused on the voice of the students and to make sure the students are fully aware of
their rights.

Alongside their campaign slogan “A New Era,” their campaign’s main platform is “Advocate, Advance, Achieve.”

They plan to advocate by making sure the students’ voices are being heard by USD administration and the Board of Regents.

To advance the well-being of all students, Sorbe and Green said they plan to work on lowering health costs for students, including STD testing. They also plan to work with mental health facilities to expand staffing in order to accommodate students and to help reduce wait list time.

Overall, Sorbe and Green said the goal of their campaign is to form a stronger bond between USD students and the community.

“Community collaboration is huge to make sure that the community of Vermillion and USD are one and the same,” Sorbe said.

The SGA presidential debate will take place Feb. 22 at 6 p.m. in the Al Neuharth Conference Room.

Ashley Haneke contributed to this story.