As the Seawolf community reels in another year, the time to vote for Sonoma State’s Associated Student (AS) Government rolls around. AS elections will be taking place this week, Wed. March 11- Thurs. March 12. Students can submit their votes online by visiting the AS homepage and signing into the “engage” link with their Seawolf login. 

AS will also be hosting Candidate Debates that are open to students, in the Sonoma Valley Room, on the second floor of the Student Center. These debates will cover a wide variety of topics concerning Sonoma State University (SSU) and are aimed to give students a better sense of who they are voting for. 

On Fri. March 6, the debates for: Chair of the Senate and Senator for Student resources took place. The candidates for the Chair of the Senate are Christina Gomez and transfer student Robert Sebastian Martinez. Christina Gomez is a second year history major and first generation college student. Gomez is currently the senator for the school of sciences at SSU. 

“My number one goal is to make sure everyone has a voice on our campus,” said Gomez in the candidate’s biographies. 

Gomez is also the co-chair of Mecha and a part of model united nations. Gomez said that she will continue to use her experience as a senator and connections to the student body to make sure that student voices are heard, according to the candidate’s biographies. 

Robert Sebastian Martinez served as Regional Affairs Director for the Student Senate for California Community Colleges, at Santa Rosa Junior College.  

“I want to make sure that the meetings are efficient but I also want to make sure everyone’s voices are heard and everyone leaves feeling empowered,” said Martinez in the candidate’s biographies.

In addition to that Martinez also said that they will make it a priority to assure that students receive a list of required texts from their professors at least one week before school begins. 

The candidate’s for the Senator for Student Resources are: Emily Twisselman and Trevor Paige. Twisselmann is a third year Psychology major and former staff writer for the STAR. She is currently a member of SSU Board of Directors of Associated Students, a peer mentor for FAST programs and a senator for Student government. 

“As a current first-gen student here at Sonoma State University, I’ve seen first hand how difficult it is to navigate a college campus…I feel that my experience representing our residents for the past two years will greatly assist me in being the Senator for Student Resources,” said Paige in the candidate’s biographies. Paige is former Pres. of Verdot Village as well as former Residential Housing Association Pres.

On Tues. March 10, at 3 p.m. the debates for the: Executive Vice President, Senator for Sustainability and Senator for Education will take place in the same location. On the same day, at 6 p.m. the debates for: Senator for Diversity and Senator for Community Affairs will take place. 

Students are strongly urged to attend these debates to understand who they are voting for. Student Government greatly affects the lives of Seawolves, and by voting students can definitely make a difference.