Presidential Candidates Campaign Interview Ft. Smith & Chirco

Students Abba Smith and Luigi Chirco are in the running for Butler SGA President and Vice President. They offer insight into their campaign on topics like why they decided to run, fundamentals, and offering their student perspective in SGA.

Heidi Copple | hcopple@butler.edu

Abba and Luigi are excited to bring their campaign ideas to the student body through SGA. They offer a student perspective on SGA matters and plan on being very inclusive with their campaign fundamentals. They want to make all students feel welcome and safe at Butler.

“Luigi and I have seen SGA from a student perspective and gotten to hear raw opinions about the organization as a whole and how it can improve to meet student needs… We want to bridge the gap between SGA and the student body and create a campus culture that values diversity, understanding, and growth,” Abba said. 

Abba and Luigi are focusing on bringing a higher level of safety to campus. They want to create a director of campus safety position who would work with diverse groups of campus leaders to collaborate with SARP, Title IX, and BUPD. This person could push for initiatives to address potential growth, like fixing locks in residential buildings, implementing hate speech legislation, and increasing campus lighting.

In regards to student belonging, they want to address why inclusion is important and get the whole campus involved. They want to listen to the student body's perspective and address specific issues where people are struggling. Abba and Luigi want to work with the Diversity Center and address any problems, big and small, that others bring to their attention.

“The bottom line is that we will create an expectation to respect everyone, in and out of SGA, and we will not tolerate dismissing someone’s intentions or ideas to promote inclusion,” Abba emphasized. 

Abba and Luigi are excited to utilize their student perspective to improve the inner workings of SGA. Holding themselves and SGA accountable is a strong belief of their campaign. They want to practice humility during their presidency and learn and grow from their mistakes as a team.