(Photo provided by the Sheikholeslami-Bell campaign)

Sheikholeslami-Bell are one of four tickets running for Student Body President and Vice President

BY SAM DOUGLAS, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

[Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]

Q: Can you introduce yourself? What year are you in, and what’s your major?

Ilia Sheikholeslami (IS): I am a third-year at Mason, studying government and international politics with a minor in comparative politics.

Charlotte Bell (CB): I am a senior at Mason, studying government and international politics with a concentration in public policy and public administration.

Why are you qualified to be student body president?

IS: I’ve been in Student Government for almost three years now, serving in multiple positions. First, a senator, the chair of our government community relations committee, and right now, I am the Speaker Pro Tempore… A lot of my work has focused on connecting students with administrators and also giving students the opportunity to be in the decision-making rooms that matter the most.

When I was chair of the government community relations committee last year, I planned our annual Mason Lobbies event. It was our largest one, we brought over 70 students to meet with 30 plus legislators in Richmond. We ended up securing about $8 million in appropriations. Throughout my time in Student Government, I have learned a lot about how this university works, what it takes to get administration to actually listen to students, and also what it takes to get legislators to listen too. 

CB: I have been in this organization two years now. I have been Chair of University Services for the past year and a half. I have really enjoyed the opportunity and think I could do even more for the university, I think I could take a higher leadership position. I also have a history of taking leadership positions as well as taking on training and onboarding. I have taken leadership positions in high school, being a theatre stage manager for two years where I was training about 50 people. Each semester I do a bunch of jobs, so I think I could handle more responsibility and I would be glad to support Ilia. I fully believe that he’d be an amazing president for Mason.

What sets you apart from the other three tickets?

IS: Our experience. We have a lot of experience working and advocating for students to administrators. We know a lot about how this university works.

CB: Not only have both of us been senators in Student Government, we have also both been chairs. Of the other people running… we are the only ones who have been chairs, so we’ve taken the most leadership positions in the Senate. So I think we both have the most experience working with senators and taking the leadership position on the side of student government.

If elected student body president and vice president, what is the first thing you are going to do in office?

IS: First thing we are going to do is get in contact with as many administrators as we can, as many members of the Board of Visitors as we can… Then also getting into contact with as many student groups and organize how we are going to be transparent to students, how we are going to be accessible to students, essentially the first few weeks of our administration for this semester and next semester is going to be focused on research, getting into contact, listening, reaching out, being present and hearing out concerns from students. Our administration is going to be as transparent and accessible as we can. Student government has not done a great job with that in the past, and what we focused on when developing our platform was actually coming up with a plan for every single thing we want to do. So we have plans in place to be able to hit the ground running if we are elected.

CB: A lot of the policies we have for each of our major pillars came from doing outreach with registered student organization leaders and asking them what they wanted from Student Government and what support they are lacking. We really want to be reaching out to all of them and working in collaboration with them, both for events, PR, having the people there and funding-wise to be able to help make the Student Government more of an organization that works on campus with others. We do not need to be putting our name on everything just for us to mean something to the community. It is really about, what can we do to be supporting more and doing better than we have been?

If you are elected, how do you see the school being different at this time next year?

IS: There is already a lot of crazy stuff happening on the federal level that is already impacting our institution. Just on the news, [15] student visas at Mason [were] revoked. There were multiple grants that were cut for students and we are facing more risks to our federal funding because of things like the “Dear Colleague” letter, and the Department of Education being at risk of shutting down. 

CB: We also want to improve accountability with the BOV because in almost all students we talk to, they do not know who the Board of Visitors are, they do not know what they do. They do not even know we have a Board of Visitors. So we really want to make sure that a lot of that information on how these decisions are getting made is something that students can better understand and also so that groups that are protesting against the university for various reasons know who they are actually facing in opposition against.

Anything else students should know about you, your campaign, or your plans?

IS: We have a lot of experience, we know how this university works. And go to BMS (Bring More Setups) every week, Fridays from four to midnight. I want the voters to know that as well.

CB: We truly want to make Mason a better university, and we have both very strongly agreed we are not trying to be politicians promising you anything impractical or unrealistic. We only want to be promising you things we truly believe we can do, and we will work very hard to make sure we do.

What is one fun fact about you that students should know before they cast your vote?

IS: I help run weekly Smash Bros. tournaments in Student Involvement every week. I have been doing that for a year. I spend all of my Friday afternoons there, from like 4 PM to midnight, it is great.

CB: I have a pretty good fun fact. It is not that exciting, and if it was the 1600s, I would be tried as a witch, but I can write backwards… if you look it up, it is something called ‘mirror writing.’ Something like Leonardo DaVinci did. I just have a natural affinity for it. I can read stuff backwards too, which is really fun.