Fourth Estate/ Andani Munkaila

Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates Bemnet and Navid share their initiatives for student advocacy, housing and accessibility

BY ANDANI MUNKAILA, GRAPHICS EDITOR

Editor’s note: This interview was edited for clarity. The full recording of the interview can be viewed on the Mason Cable Network. 

Fourth Estate reached out to all four tickets for the Spring Student Body Election. Both McAulay-Cuesta and Bekele-Navid participated in interviews. Curtis-Cora did not respond to an invitation to interview, and Faris-Rawat cancelled an interview with Fourth Estate shortly before the scheduled time.

Amid the large student body at George Mason University, Bemnet Bekele and Ahnaf Akmal Navid have emerged as candidates for the roles of student body president and vice president. Their campaign focuses on addressing issues such as student support, housing and campus accessibility. In this interview, Bemnet and Navid discuss their motivations, qualifications, and plans for enhancing student government’s effectiveness and explain their perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing the university community.

What motivated you to run? 

Bemnet: We’ve seen about a 30% increase in the George Mason student population. The university is letting in even more students but has done nothing on the administrative side to support the student population that we have. We don’t have any new academic advisors, specifically in the engineering and science department, to support the students. That’s detrimental to the students, especially international students who are at risk of losing their F1 status. We see these issues that need to be resolved.

Navid: Some people are actually homeless right now because they did not find any housing. Cost-wise, I don’t think most students can afford living here. So we have been working with homelessness, and then other students might have to take online classes, but the seats are already filled up by that time. So either they have to drop off this semester, this one.

Bemnet: And the biggest motivator; we don’t believe that the current student government has accurately represented most of the Mason population. International students altogether make up about like 90% of this university at this point. Since we’ve been working with them, we’ve gone through what they’ve gone through. Current Student Government, it’s become a club at this point. And that’s why a lot of people don’t even want to vote in these elections. They don’t see a change that can come about at all. And that’s what you want to change.

What skills do you possess that make you qualify for the positions? 

Navid: I can speak from the admissions office that I’ve worked with, I can speak from all OIPS that I’ve worked with, I can speak from contemporaries that I worked with, we have advised more than 400 students.

Bemnet: Yeah, we’ve just been working with students this whole time. The biggest skill that we can bring is how new we are to all of this. Since we haven’t been in student government, we’re not coming into this because it’s gonna support our future. We’re coming to this because we are tired of knowing that what the university is doing can be resolved if a majority of the students were actually represented.

 How will you improve the student government environment? 

Bemnet: I met with the President [and he] told me what I can expect as president. One of the things that he said was, it’s going to be a steep learning curve because we don’t have prior experience. But he also mentioned that the fact that I have a fresh set of eyes means that I can make a lot of changes within the Senate. Some things that might raise a red flag to me as an outsider, they’ve just accepted as that’s the way things are done. I’ve heard that there’s drama between them. The one meeting that I went to was like someone in student government got up and started calling people out from the executive and from the Senate that weren’t really doing well.

 How will you address campus accessibility? 

Bemnet: ADA compliance is not a word I like. Just because you can comply with the bare minimum does not mean you’re doing well. It has to be excellent. Honestly, like, for example, some of these doors, the automatic doors that have the opening for students were using wheelchairs. They are very, not only are they inefficient, sometimes they’re dangerous in terms of how fast they close or how fast they open. All of that needs to be fixed. Increasing accessibility is not just for the students who have disabilities, it’s also for everyone else. No one has suffered because of accessibility. Accessibility is going to help all students.

 What sets your platform apart from other candidates? 

Our platform is the most likely to work for the majority of Mason students. The majority of Mason students aren’t voting in the student government elections because they don’t see the point. We definitely believe that we have their best interests at heart more than the other candidates do.

 What are your big campaign plans? 

Bemnet: One, get OIPS more funding. Adding a peer mentorship program with OIPs. And adding a lounge space like Contemporary Students has. Peer mentors for OIPS means that instead of directly meeting with an Immigration Adviser every time you have a problem, you get to meet with a mentor who has probably gone through it, and they will help you guide through it like another international student. And if the problem is too big of a deal, and it becomes an immigration problem, then they can refer you to an Immigration Adviser.

I want to propose frozen tuition plans for two years. This is a fast-growing university; the University will need more money. Limiting it to two years at a time means that graduate students can graduate with their degrees without seeing a big increase in their universities, a lot of master’s students who are international students, and undergraduate students, especially off-campus transfers internationals when they come in, will have a period of time where they can definitely know that they won’t have an unexpected increase in cost. Not just that, but freezing tuition means that the university has to realistically plan for what they’re going to build and what they’re going to do.