Written by: Amanda Blake
Edvan Benitez won Student Association (SA) president last Thursday in the closest presidential election since 2013, when Southern Adventist University began using SurveyMonkey to conduct voting. Benitez, senior theology major, beat his opponent, Bryson Baird, sophomore engineering major, by 40 votes.
One thousand and eighty-six students voted in this year’s general election for the 2024-2025 SA officers. Benitez received 563 votes (51.84%), while Baird received 523 (48.16%).
Voters elected Alfredo Trevedan, junior accounting major, as executive vice president (VP). Trevedan ran unopposed for the position and received 1,023 “yes” votes (94.2%).
Charlynneth Dizon, junior psychology major, received 797 votes (73.39%) for social VP, beating Priscille Mikala, sophomore music major, by 508 votes.
Community Emphasis
During election speeches, given during convocation on Thursday, Feb. 15, Benitez said, “I want to emphasize that I want to serve you because this campaign is not about me. It’s about us. It’s about our community.”
In a recent interview with the Accent, Benitez once again highlighted his focus on community by pointing out that each of the winning candidates’ campaign platforms focused on connection and friendship.
“We want to build community here on campus,” he said. “Especially for me, I have a heart for those who feel lonely.”
According to Benitez, loneliness is a prominent issue on campus. He has spoken to several students about their Southern experience, he said, and while many have given him positive feedback, they also mention a deficient social aspect.
Trevedan began his election speech by describing his personal struggle to build quality connections on campus as a freshman.
“Why don’t people invest in me the way I do to them?” he said to the audience, explaining the feelings he’d experienced as a campus newcomer. “Does my existence even matter?”
He then introduced the cornerstone of his campaign: Southern Adventist University Community Emphasis (SAUCE).
“I obviously can’t force the student body to create relationships with other people, but I am excited to create spaces and opportunities for students to build relationships,” Trevedan said during a recent interview with the Accent.
During her speech, Dizon summed up her platform using the phrase: “Strengthening bonds and faith.” In an interview with the Accent, she said she is looking forward to implementing both aspects of her campaign slogan on campus and described her desired combination of bonds and faith as true Christian fellowship.
“It’s quite challenging for me to put the spiritual aspect to social things, and God knows about this, too,” she said. “And God knows that I’ve been telling Him, ‘Lord, I am not qualified for this position.’ But God said, ‘No, Cha Cha, I didn’t call you here because you’re qualified. I called you here to make you qualified for this position.’”
Dizon plans to create events that help people step out of their regular social circles and have fun doing activities that align with the university’s Christian center.
Fulfilling Promises
Benitez listed several plans for student life improvement in his campaign platform, including the addition of electric scooters and a food delivery service to campus, among other things.
When asked about the feasibility of fulfilling his campaign promises next year, Benitez said the ideas included in his platform were pre-approved by Student Development, a signal that both Dennis Negrón, vice president for the department, and Alexis Grentz, director of student life and activities, believe they can be accomplished.
“Actually, I got pushback for other ideas that I had,” Benitez said. “You know, I had even more ambitious ideas. … Alexis talked to me, and Dr. Negrón. They were like, ‘No, I don’t think you can make this promise. I don’t think you can make this happen.’ And I had to remove them from my platform.”
Some of the ideas Benitez removed were adding artificial turf to Southern’s soccer fields, building outdoor futsal courts, paying cultural club officers and giving bonuses to CK2 workers.
Trevedan took a different approach than Benitez when creating his platform.
“There are very few things that I have promised for this school year, and that was intentional,” he said. “That’s because I don’t want to create this sense of false hope [among] the students that eventually leads to a sense of disappointment.”
However, Trevedan plans to meet soon with Joseph Khabbaz, vice president of spiritual life, to begin planning the “Afterglow Mingle” part of his platform, a post-Vespers event meant to engage students in joint activities. He is also brainstorming ways to benefit campus through material purchases. One addition he is considering is a handicap ramp connecting the promenade to the McKee Library entrance.
Trevedan said he is excited to lead Student Senate.
“We want to build community here on campus. Especially for me, I have a heart for those who feel lonely.”
“I think that the work Senate does is very meaningful in the way that they represent the student body [and] create spaces and opportunities for the student body to feel heard, [and they] also give back to the students,” Trevedan said.
Dizon said she began scheduling events Thursday night after learning she had won the social VP position during a phone call from current SA President Jared Chandler. Events listed in her platform include a Welcome Back Party titled “FunFest: SAU Edition,” a reverse escape room and two banquets, one focused on diversity and the other on spiritual fellowship, among other things.
Election Statistics
- Dennis Negrón, vice president for Student Development, shared the following statistics with the Accent:
- 776 students voted in the SA primary election on Feb. 15.
- On Feb. 22, an email was sent to 2,272 students asking them to vote in the SA general election. 2,192 students opened the email. 1,086 students voted, 48% of those who received the email.
- 30% of those who voted were sophomores. 17% were seniors.
- This is the second lowest general election voter turnout (based on the percentage of students who received the election email that voted) in the past 5 years, although it is significantly higher than the voter turnout in 2022, which saw only 29% of students who received the election email vote.
“If I make a promise, I will make that promise happen,” Dizon told the Accent, “because I want [students at] Southern to experience something new that will help them, really, further on in their life to have a strong foundation for their faith and to be exposed more to different opportunities.”
The Accent contacted Baird and Mikala to ask if they plan on running for SA again or pursuing other leadership positions on campus.
Baird wrote in an Instagram message that he wasn’t planning to run for president this year until Negrón called him during the winter break and asked him to run. According to Baird, he saw a lot of support for his platform, which focused on improvements for residence life and spiritual culture.
“There seemed to be no hidden fees or expenses the students would have to pay for, because, to my knowledge, based on what I heard from faculty, there was already money raised for some of the projects I wanted to do,” he wrote about his platform. “The money was raised years ago but wasn’t used for its intended purpose.”
Baird said he will not run for SA again, because next school year will be his last year at Southern. However, he will be a Southern Village resident assistant and is considering another role in the Office of Ministry and Missions.
“I am praying for Edvan as he goes forward in his role as SA president,” he wrote. “I hope he will be able to achieve what he set out to do and that it will work out well for the campus.”
Mikala also messaged the Accent via Instagram and wrote that she is not planning to run for social VP again.
“I am thinking about pursuing leadership positions on campus for the 24-25 school year; not sure what positions yet,” she wrote. “I will go where God leads me.”
