Four OU juniors will compete for OU Student Government Association president and vice president during the election from Oct. 31 to Nov. 1.

OU students can cast their votes on ENGAGE using their OU 4x4 and password. They can also vote for other SGA representatives.

Shrey Kathuria and Aniketh Koneru 

Community health junior Shrey Kathuria will run for SGA president alongside his running mate, public relations junior Aniketh Koneru, for vice president.

"Why we are running for office is not to enhance our resume or anything, it is to be public servants to our university," Kathuria said.

Kathuria and Koneru's platform is called WIN: welcoming community, igniting change and notifying you. 

"We have to embrace (students) for who they are, we have to ignite change. Keeping things the same is not going to help us out in the long term, especially considering the fact that we're about to go to the (Southeastern Conference). We have to be championship-ready, whether on the field, off the field, in the classroom and within our communities," Kathuria said. 

Kathuria and Koneru said their background as pre-health students will aid them in the roles of SGA president and vice president, if elected. Spending time in the science lab, doing experiments and coming up with hypotheses and conclusions taught them to understand evidence-based policy, as their desired roles would require. 

While campaigning, Koneru said most of the students he spoke with in the Oklahoma Memorial Union had no idea what SGA does. If elected, Koneru said he wants to implement the slogan, "notifying you," by increasing communication channels between OU students and the SGA.

If elected, the pair would also create workshops that involve getting to know more about SGA and what the organization entails. 

Koneru said he hopes to bring diverse speakers and views to the Crimson Leadership Association, which teaches first-year students about SGA’s structure.

"We want to let our peers know about our cultural perspectives. Me and Shrey have already established that we care about other communities than our own and we want to bring that same perspective into the policies we make in the organizations we lead," Koneru said. 

Kathuria was a former executive member of the Zack Lissau-Denzel Akuffo SGA administration and a legislative assistant in the current Christopher Firch-Emelie Schultz SGA administration. Koneru is the publicity chair for the OU India Student Association.

Kathuria said his candidacy is inspired by U.S. President Joe Biden because of his compassion and willingness to work with people and that he would "unite" rather than "divide" individuals. Koneru said Nicki Minaj inspires him because of her journey as an artist and her song lyrics.

“I can certainly relate to the way that she messages her ‘Barbs’ (fans) and connects with them. It makes me want to continue to push to be more than what I am in the present,” Koneru said. 

Caden Glasscock and Cyrus Mortazavi 

Business management junior Caden Glasscock, and his running mate, business healthcare junior Cyrus Mortazavi, are also in the running for SGA president. The pair are in panhellenic fraternities, in which Glasscock is in Sigma Phi Epsilon and Mortazavi in Sigma Nu.

Glasscock said he and Mortazavi first considered being SGA president and vice president during their freshmen year while studying abroad in Italy. 

"We come from different backgrounds and we come from different areas of campus, but we wanted to make sure that we brought student voices back into the Student Government Association," Glasscock said. 

Glasscock and Mortazavi's platform is BLOOM: bridging the gap, leading us into the SEC, optimizing student resources, our traditions and making your voice heard.

Glasscock said if elected as SGA president, he will help students as OU transitions to the SEC. As SGA leaders, Glasscock and Mortazvi plan to share with the student body what’s discussed during meetings with faculty about the transition. 

"We're going to make sure that we're being transparent with students, but we're also going to be working with organizations on campus so that we have the ability to help them prepare for the new influx of students," Glasscock said. 

Mortazavi said when people think about the SEC and what the conference means, they think of sports and football, but “it's so much more than that. It's setting ourselves to the standard of SEC and academia is so important. So working with faculty and professors and just being able to be a student or a resource for them.”

To aid student organizations on campus, Glasscock said that it starts by getting organizations, especially multicultural organizations, involved on campus. 

“A big thing we see is (previous SGA leadership) go to these organizations, get them hyped up for their campaign and then they don't come back,” Glasscock said. 

Mortazavi said that they want to let people know that SGA is a resource for students. 

Glasscock and Mortazavi said they are inspired by their fathers. Mortazavi said his dad is an immigrant from Iran and a first-generation college student.

"He always instilled in me education and how education is important and I'm so thankful I have the opportunity to be here at OU and he inspires me and pushes me to do my best," Mortazavi said. 

Academia was a large part of Glasscock's life, he said, as his parents value education. His dad always made sure he focused on school but also was able to pursue his goals.

"Running for this position is a goal that I've had for over a year and I will say that he's just made sure that I've had the ability and the courage to run for a position like this," Glasscock said. 

This story was edited by Alexia Aston, Taylor Jones and Peggy Dodd. Sophie Hemker, Mary Ann Livingood and Nikkie Aisha copy edited this story.