On Tuesday, Feb. 27, Jackson Connor, junior and current Student Body Vice President, was elected as Wheaton College’s next student body president after a short race where he ran unopposed. His vice president will be junior Marina Ntragatakis, current president of College Union.
Connor is a political science major from Tyler, Tex. who in his free time can be found on the rock wall in Chrouser Sports Complex. Last spring, he and now-president Liliana Beauchemin emerged the winners of a three-ticket race. With a year of experience under his belt, Connor said he and Ntragatakis will spend next year making progress on multi-year projects and considering proposals to restructure Student Government (SG). One goal they have is to increase transparency by adding more opportunities for connection with the student body.
“There are many aspects about SG that are frankly not working and nearly irrelevant to the student body,” Connor said in an email to the Record.
Ntragatakis, a business economics major from Hudson, Ohio, is finishing her second year of involvement in College Union, a student organization under the Student Involvement Office that plans and hosts campus events including the President’s Ball, the Talent Show and Airjam. In her free time, you might see Ntragatakis playing intramural volleyball, or hand making clay magnets with her roommates and a cup of coffee.
Next year will be her first on SG, and she’s looking forward to balancing Connor’s experience with a fresh angle.
“Coming in with experience elsewhere and a different skill set, brings the value of a new perspective on things,” she said. “So I think that our partnership is a cool combination.”
SG’s bylaws allow for voting to be canceled if no race is contested. In 2021 and 2022, the presidential races were similarly uncontested. It’s also been common for a few executive vice president and administrator positions to have no candidates in February.
But this year, a handful of positions had candidates but no competition. In an email to the student body on Feb. 27, in advance of the speech night, Beauchemin announced that the races were over without any voting taking place.
In the email, Beauchemin listed the new officers in each of the positions. Junior Aydin Henderson will be executive vice president (EVP) of campus sustainability, sophomore William Mesquit will be EVP of academic affairs and junior Philip Kendall will be EVP of student life and engagement. Adam Mikhail and Karla Rocha will be co-presidents of the sophomore class. There were no candidates for the other four EVP roles, or for the junior or senior class presidents, so Connor and Ntragatakis are accepting applications to the roles and will appoint new officers after an interview process.
The new officers will be sworn in at “Pass the Gavel,” SG’s annual transfer of power ceremony, on April 24.
