With bylaw changes and two special elections, the Student Government Association (SGA) Senate returned to the Eynon Ballroom on Feb. 2, 2026, for its first meeting of the spring semester.
Before any election took place, Brody Schneider and Yuval Saar, the Assistant Vice Presidents (AVP’s) of Facilities, Operations, & Sustainability and Student Advocacy and Community Belonging, respectively, announced bylaw changes to elections after senators expressed their concerns about special elections during the Sept. 30, 2025, senate meeting.
One of these changes referenced Colin Webb, the senator of Habitat for Humanity, who previously expressed concerns about the questioning period.
“It is very important that we get to know these candidates we are voting for, and that we get the opportunity to ask questions to these candidates. How can we balance being fair to all the candidates and also getting people a chance to share their questions? Because the truth is, people can have different questions for different candidates,” said Webb.
SGA announced that three questions were compiled by the committees for the vacant roles, amongst other changes to the election processes. After this, the special elections for the night proceeded.
On Nov. 17, 2025, it was announced that the AVP of Governmental Relations role was left vacant, and that a special election would follow. Four candidates ran for the position: Alianna Dorsey, a sophomore history education major; Jimmy Flocco, a sophomore geographic information science major; Prayash Ojha, a pre-law political science major; and Stefan Simon, a junior biomedical engineering and mathematical statistics major.
The new bylaws took effect during the questioning period, with each candidate being asked the same three questions. Each candidate first had to respond to why they wanted to be the AVP of Governmental Relations.
Dorsey felt she could use her major and her knowledge to serve the role.
“I want to be committee chair for Government Relations because I care about advocacy and representation. As a history education major, I understand how important it is to speak up and what policies affect students. I want to ensure growing students have a strong and more rapport beyond campus,” said Dorsey.
Flocco emphasized his background in community organizing and public engagement.
“The entire reason why I ran for this role in the first place is that I believe that this is the position that allows me to best utilize my skill set as a community organizer. I believe that my career field and the experience that I’ve gotten through my education have adequately prepared me to be a liaison to public government as planners, utilize this on a day-to-day basis, to interact with communities and be stationed with community needs and whatnot,” said Flocco. “And I think that my and my background and the organizing that I’ve done with clubs on this campus has very much suited me for the ability to sort of give that access for students to stand up for themselves, and that going a top down approach and encouraging a bottom up approach into the way themselves to public government and inform themselves is the best way that I can use my power as AVP of government relations.”
In the end, Jimmy Flocco was chosen to be the SGA’s new AVP of Governmental Relations with 78 votes. Dorsey fell behind with 29 votes, and over 20 senators abstained from voting.
The second special election of the night for the position of Alternate Student Trustee, which went vacant over winter break, went a little differently and even resulted in a division of the house.
Five candidates were running for the position. Alexander Starick, the current Chief of Community Standards. Benjamin Hough, a sophomore data science major. Alaijha Wilson, a junior journalism major, Youssef Badaoui, a sophomore chemical engineering major, and Abhishek Shrestha, a sophomore finance major.
During speeches, Badaoui made a claim that he would get better parking for the campus if elected to the position.
“We are a commuter campus. 66% of us start our day circling lots instead of sitting in class for two out of every three students. Parking isn’t just a headache; it’s an equity crisis, as the South Jersey region leads for progressive victory. I’ve organized at scale and advocated for change,” said Badaoui. “I’m ready to bring that professional break to the Board of Trustees with three commitments, presence. I will be a constant fixture in the SGA suite and a voting voice in favor of the essential student priorities partnership. I will work directly with administrators and the foundation board to make parking a priority, not a footnote in every meeting.”
Students focused on this statement during the questioning period, bringing up where this funding for more parking would be coming from and where the parking would be put, to which Badaoui promptly answered.
“Simple, parking garage. There you go. We got plenty of parking. It doesn’t take up too much area, and plenty of people can park there. Now, your second question was the cost. How do we generate the revenue? Now, I don’t know about you people, but I read somewhere that Rowan University generates $2 billion for the state of New Jersey. That is more than enough money to divert for the majority of our students,” said Badaoui.
Later, in the meeting minutes, the Dean of Students, Kevin Koett, clarified that Rowan does not have $2 billion in additional revenue. This claim was sourced by a projected amount of influence that Rowan graduates have on the collective economy of New Jersey, and is in no way a reflection of the money Rowan has.
In the end, Starick ended up winning the election with 133 votes, with Badaoui falling behind with 11 votes. With Starick’s victory, his previous role of Chief Commissioner of Community Standards is now vacant.
During the Student Concern portion of the senate, an unidentified student brought up the concern of DHS being on campus.
“I, like many others this past week, spent almost every day trying to figure out how the Rohrer Center of Professional Development thought was in any way appropriate to show us how customs and border protection in the center of Business Hall during peak Tuesday class hours and markets was both a fantastic opportunity on Proflink,” said the student. “I’m left still wondering whether Rowan will formally acknowledge what was not only dramatically politically insensitive, just three days after Alex Pretti with an audacious level of departmental ineptitude that, whether a product of blatant disregard or ignorance insults the integrity of this institution and the hard working students it serves, hundreds of which are international and 1000s more which are students of color. Will the university be issuing a statement regarding this event, and can it provide any assurance that it won’t happen again?”
Koett was the one to answer the student, highlighting that there is nothing students will have to be worried about regarding potential United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) sightings on campus.
“I agree that there are students who are concerned about that. I think there’s no one who won’t be issued a statement, because we have issued stated information. It was the College of Business where they were auditors. They were recruiting for auditors. There are people on this campus who want auditing positions, and there are students who want jobs and opportunities. Some of them may say that working with the border patrol in Philadelphia would be a job opportunity that would be good for them,” said Koett. “And so as a public institution, it is our responsibility to protect students who are concerned and in fear, which we do. It’s also our opportunity and our responsibility to provide jobs, internships, and opportunities for students. And so the reality is, there were no ICE agents on campus.”
The next SGA Senate will take place on Feb. 16, 2026.
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