2025 SGA major candidates face off in debate

On Thursday, Feb. 6, the Student Government Association Major Candidate Debate occurred in the Student Activities Center at 5 p.m. WEGL 91.1 station manager Rae Nawrocki, The Auburn Plainsman editor-in-chief Sami Grace Donnelly and Eagle Eye TV station manager Sydney Babb moderated the debate, with news station WTVM broadcasting in partnership with Eagle Eye TV. 

Director of Elections Sam Laggan opened the debate and explained its format. The speaking order for all candidates was determined alphabetically by last name, and no questions were shared with any campaign in advance.

For major candidates, questions were directed to an individual candidate, who had one minute to respond. Each remaining candidate then had 45 seconds for a rebuttal. The debate concluded with each candidate delivering a closing statement.

Jack Hilton, the 2024 SGA president, introduced each candidate as they took the stage to debate.

Treasurer 

Hailey Bergenthal, junior in law and justice who is running unopposed for the treasurer position, was the first to start. Bergenthal opened with a statement about her campaign platform, emphasized two-way investment between Auburn University and students and building wealth for students to be financially stable as they become Auburn alumni. 

Moderators asked Bergenthal to address concerns about the affordability and availability of dining options on campus, and how she would advocate on students' behalf. 

“I think it’s important to dive into what that money is going towards, how is the dining hall spending it, and what is the food actually worth that we are buying for our dining halls,” Bergenthal said. “Diving into that and looking at where we can cut back costs, having those meetings with that dining hall is going to be the most important factor so that we can get rid of any excessive costs for the students.”

When asked how “resume building” influenced her campaign, Bergenthal denied that it played any role. 

“I didn’t know anybody [coming to Auburn], I had to come in here and I had to find my people. Where I found my people was in SGA. I interviewed for freshman forum and I got the spot, I fell in love with it. Then I interviewed for Heyday, I got a spot there and it was awesome," Bergenthal said. "All of this wasn’t fueled by me wanting to add stuff to my resume, it was fueled by the fact that I love the people that I was surrounded by and I loved the organization that I was a member of.” 

In her closing remarks, Bergenthal asserted that she was not only concerned of the treasurer's budgeting responsibility, but also what she called the “currency of our everyday lives.” Bergenthal spoke to the value of connections that students form with faculty and each other and what is important to a student. 

Vice President

Buckley Nettles, junior in communications, and Emma Frances Zellner, junior in accounting, are running for vice president. Both candidates reflected on their past experiences in SGA and gave an overview of their platforms “Buckling Up with Buckley” and “We Can with Emma Fran.”

When asked about an SGA resolution that inspired her, Zellner mentioned the recent passing of rank-choice voting. To Zellner, the bill showed that SGA cares about students’ opinions and represented the full circle of SGA’s legislative process.

“One of my favorite things about SGA is actually the chance that these students you’ve elected get to stand up and voice their opinions and really show what they care about,” Zellner said.

Nettles was inspired by repairs for sidewalks around campus and wants to build upon similar improvements by increasing safety measures.

“Fixing a sidewalk may seem like a very small thing, but safety can look like something even bigger,” Nettles said. “When students feel safe, they are the best versions of themselves.”

Continuing to discuss the need for a more proactive Auburn, Nettles wants to improve Auburn Answers, a team built to communicate student feedback to administration. 

Zellner highlighted resources like the Involvement Suite. With over 500 organizations on campus, Zellner wants to promote the suite to encourage unity, communication and fellowship among students.

Both candidates discussed plans to sustain their platforms beyond the campaign period. Zellner emphasized that her campaign is about advocating for students rather than personal recognition, while Nettles emphasized her commitment to transparent communication.

President

Juniors Owen Beaverstock and Jake Yohn, both political science majors, are running for SGA president.

Beaverstock was asked how he feels about the higher enrollment numbers at Auburn. He believes it is positive to have an increasing number of students, but the university needs to keep up with the rising number.

“With a growing number of freshman students, we have to make sure that we have enough advisors to tend to all these people here,” Beaverstock said. “If we don't have enough, then they're not going to get the resources that they need and they're going to have confused students, which is a bad thing.”

In response, Yohn discussed his work as a student recruiter on campus and how he has seen admission numbers rise. 

“The reality is we are a land grant institution. We need to be focused on the students that are from Alabama, making sure that we serve the people of this state,” Yohn said. 

During the debate, Yohn discussed how he wants to be an accessible president and he will do that by holding open office hours. 

Beaverstock discussed how he wants to bring SGA out of the Melton Student Center and bring it to the rest of campus. In addition to this, Beaverstock said that the cabinet wants to bring a new assistant vice president role that focuses on mental health. 

When discussing housing issues, Yohn proposed working with the administration to push for more on-campus housing and collaborating with the city to hold developers accountable for off-campus housing. Beaverstock focused on working with the university to master-lease more apartments to provide affordable options.

On community service, Beaverstock proposed a campus-wide organization service day, while Yohn advocated for better utilization of the underused EXP branch that offers one-time volunteer opportunities.

In their final question, the candidates identified the most prominent issue that was not already addressed. Yohn spoke about parking issues and advocated for implementing legislation that allows students to pay off parking tickets with community service. Beaverstock highlighted class registration difficulties and proposed improving access to advising resources.

Miss Auburn

Kendall Anderson, junior in wildlife sciences, centered her platform on increasing engagement in smaller student organizations.

“My platform is centered on highlighting organizations, like my organizations in the College of Forestry, that are small and whose work maybe goes unnoticed but is equally important to the rest of campus,” Anderson said.

Anderson proposed creating opportunities for small organizations to learn more about advertising. She also discussed setting up a feedback system for the students who do not get positions in larger organizations and providing them with other options.

Ellen Connell, junior in law and justice, discussed her platform revolving around engagement and highlighting the resources that Auburn has to offer. 

When asked who inspired her during her time at Auburn, Connell answered Abigail Stevenson, her friend. Connell served as Stevenson's campaign manager when she ran for 2024 Miss Homecoming. 

“Everything that [Stevenson] did was about gratitude and thankfulness and just giving back to all the people that had gotten you where you are,” Connell said.

Sophie Marino, junior in exercise science, shared how the inspiration for her campaign came from when she attended Camp War Eagle and men's basketball coach, Bruce Pearl, was the guest speaker. Pearl shared his personal Auburn email so the students could email him for help to get connected at Auburn. 

“My platform 'Soar with Sophie' just directly emphasizes that I want to be that connector person to help people get to where they want to go,” Marino said.

When asked how she'll help students find their way, Marino answered she wants to help students identify their pillars and connect them to reach their goals.

Riley Parman, senior in global studies, discussed how her campaign is all about giving students the tools to identify their passions so they can use their education to better serve communities. 

When asked how she saw service impact students' lives on Auburn's campus, Parman shared her enthusiasm for serving.

“We think that we are too small to interact with things like world hunger, poverty, a lack of adequate housing, but in reality that's not true. The Auburn experience directly contradicts the belief that we are too small to solve big problems,” Parman said. “I think that service can give students a taste of what it looks like to really interact with those issues that they care about.”

Vera Smith T, senior in biomedical sciences, shared that her platform focuses on encouraging students to find their passion on campus, to not be afraid to reach out to faculty and those in leadership positions and to encourage community and relationships at Auburn.

Smith T was asked what are a few ways she believes communication between faculty and students can improve and how that can be facilitated. She proposed the idea of having open houses. 

“I would really love to create open houses in each college for professors to come and share their individual stories and giving students the opportunity to attend those because I believe that this would not only encourage students to get to know their professors, but also just encourage them to not be afraid to pursue their dreams in whatever way that might be,” Smith T said.

During the debate, Lagan introduced a new ranked-choice voting system for the upcoming election. The system will allow students to rank candidates by preference, ensuring the winning candidate has broad support.

“If a candidate has more than 50% of the first choice votes, then they win right away. If no candidate has more than 50%, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes is eliminated,” Lagan said. “Voters who picked that candidate as their first choice will have their votes reallocated to their second choice candidate. This process continues with the lowest ranked candidate being eliminated and votes raised redistributed to the second choice until one candidate has the majority which is more than 50% of the vote.”

Voting will take place using the universities online voting portal at aub.ie/sgavote from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday. At 10 p.m. Friday, the 2025 SGA major candidates will be announced at the steps of Cater Hall.