Serena Fazal has never been a member of the Syracuse University Student Association.

She heard about the organization through her best friend, John Jankovic, who got involved in the organization during his freshman year. In December, the two traveled to Puerto Rico on Syracuse University’s relief trip, which Jankovic helped organize. While working together abroad, Jankovic told Fazal more about SA, she said.

She decided she wanted in. The sophomore Spanish and psychology double major announced her run for vice president, as Jankovic’s running mate, in March.

“She doesn’t have that SA mindset,” said Vanessa Davila, the duo’s campaign manager. “We always need to recognize that people that work in SA tend to get all up in our own heads when it comes to initiatives and what we think students need.”

Fazal said her outside experience will help her serve as a bridge between students who aren’t involved as much at SU. Through her, they’ll have more of a say at the university, she said.

Davila, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been a member of SA for almost an entire academic year and said Fazal has been “fantastic” at providing her and Jankovic with an outside perspective.

If elected, Fazal and Jankovic would like to introduce “fireside chats” to show the student body that she and Jankovic would uphold the standards of what they’re running for and what they want to do, she said.

SA would also be a place for student groups and councils to learn about each other, she said.

“A couple of students I’ve talked to, they haven’t really heard of SA and they don’t hear about these events going on,” she added.

Fazal, who currently serves as the vice president of the Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad/Lambda Pi Chi sorority and historian of the Alpha Chi Sigma chemistry fraternity, said she felt the campus is split among student groups.

“I see there’s a very large gap between different councils,” she said. “One thing I want to try to do is get the other councils to come together and support each other’s events, and not have it be segregated.”

Fazal sees that gap between the councils that govern campus Greek life. The National Association of Latino Fraternal Organizations, which oversees Latinx Greek organizations, and the Panhellenic Council, which governs other fraternities, have large differences, she said.

Jankovic said his SA team would try to create something like a coalition between governing councils and bodies. When “big issues” arise, such as tuition hikes or SU’s status as a sanctuary campus, there would be discussion throughout the student body, Jankovic said.

The goal would be to have these student-wide discussions before the topic even reaches SA legislation, Jankovic said.

Both Jankovic and Fazal said they recognize how much change SA can enact at SU.

“We saw how much we both wanted to make a change and we thought, ‘why not?’” Fazal said. “Why not work together?”

Published on April 3, 2018 at 9:37 pm

Contact Ali: akharfor@syr.edu