As most of you may know, Rollins SGA President & Vice President elections are coming up. This involves a flooding of new posters, new campaigns, and most importantly, new questions needing to be answered.

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing two of the candidates: Dylan Bassham and Angel Whetstone - both active members of the Rollins community, who have been close friends for years. We talked about their values, motives, and goals. We even got them talking about some of their precious secrets...

Listen to the full whole interview here:

Q: What made you decide to run?

Dylan: Angel and I have known each other since freshman year. We’ve grown incredibly close, and because of that, we’ve realized that we share a lot of the same values and morals. We also hold a lot of leadership positions on campus. For example, I’m currently the president of a fraternity, I was the vice president of finance and records for the IFC, I was student senator for a semester, and I’m also currently the Vice President of the Chinese Student Organization. I feel that because I’ve held these leadership positions, I’ve learned various delegation and leadership skills that will transcribe well in becoming a liaison between the student body and the SGA council.

Angel: I think he summed it up pretty well. Like he said, we’re really just leaders on campus who are involved in a lot of things. For example, I’ve been an RA, I’m a House Manager, I’ll be Assistant Hall Manager next year. I’m a part of the Microfinance Organization, BSU, and I’ve just done so much that I really think it’s time for me to start giving back.

Q: What do you think makes you the better candidates?

Dylan: Like I already mentioned, we’ve established ourselves on campus, and a lot of students already know who we are. One of the biggest initiatives we want to take, is that we want to be transparent and equal - so when students have ideas, we want them to be able to come to us willingly, not with fear or concern.

Angel: I think also, we’re just genuine. We’re genuine people. We walk around and have friendships with people, and I think that’s really something this school needs - just genuine people who are willing to go up to students and have a real conversation about their day and their classes. Because the little things that people don’t always think matter can actually mean a lot to one person.

Dylan: And I really think we pride ourselves on that too.

Q: What is an example of something you’d do if you were elected?

Dylan: I think something people don’t understand is that it’s not the president or vice president’s job to get something passed - that’s the senator’s job. It’s our job to advocate for what the student body wants, and to fight for it. So at the end of the day, whatever the students want done. We’ll get done. But we do also have some ideas up our sleeves. We want to work closely with academics, and raise the academic standards of Rollins. Also maybe even add another house of campus for Fraternity & Sorority Life/housing in general.

Angel: Yeah, I think he summed it up pretty well.

Q: What do you think are standards that the SGA President & Vice President should be held to?

Dylan: I think that because the SGA President & Vice President are the liaisons between the student body and administration, and that the administration's motto is to be global citizens and responsible leaders, that that is what we believe should be our roles and our responsibilities as we hold these positions. We just want to be held accountable for our actions, and strive to be the role models for every undergraduate student.

Angel: Yea, I was actually going to mention being a role model too. I think that as the SGA President and Vice President, people are definitely looking to us to be role models, especially for the incoming freshman. We need to be people that they can follow, and I agree with Dylan about being strong global citizens as well. I’ve been on a couple of Immersions, and I think that if I can get the whole school to start participating on them, that I can raise the bar about what it means to be a global citizen, and who is one.

Q: If you aren’t elected, what will be your involvement level on campus, and will you still try to implement the same things?

Angel: Definitely.

Dylan: I mean, the only thing we’d be able to do is run for Senator positions, but like I mentioned, those are the real people who get stuff done. So we wouldn’t be able to advocate for students as much, but we’d be able to still ride that legislation and hopefully still get done what the students want done. We’d also still be open to having students come to us about their problems, and just generally being open to the Rollins community.

Check out SGA Presidential candidate Matt Cassidy & VP Deanna Loew's interview here.

Find out Dylan & Angel's secrets and fun facts here.