Cassidy Matwiyoff is a sophomore majoring in political science and a current senator for the College of Arts and Sciences.
Q: What made you want to run for this position?
“Over my time in SGA, I have served as both a first-year councilor and a senator, and through both those experiences, I have developed a great understanding of the legislative process and the value it brings to student experience on campus. But most importantly, I have built an affinity for imparting change on campus. Through my time as both a first-year councilor and a senator, I have worked alongside both previous vice presidents for academic affairs, Cameron Doyle and Johnny Foster. I have also served as the committee head for academic affairs in Senate this past year, and I have developed a great understanding for this role and the work it demands.”
Q: What are two initiatives you want to accomplish in this position?
“Two of my main platform points are both engagement and advocacy. Within my idea for engagement, I hope to accomplish imparting a new annual guest speaker series titled “Legends Live” where I bring in guest speakers like Sen. Katie Britt or Nick Saban, for example, to discuss what “being a legend” means to them. Additionally, I hope to advocate for students through scholarship video testimonials, highlighting people who have won certain scholarships and the benefits they’ve reaped from these experiences, to show donors and also students thinking about applying for these scholarships.”
Q: What is the biggest problem you see on campus?
“I want to start by, first of all, commending SGA for the role and the work they’ve done to engage students from different walks of life and parts of campus through programs like the SGA DEI passport and even academic excellence week. However, I feel the SGA lacks in certain areas like academic affairs engagement with the student body, so I would like to work throughout my term to increase programming through an academic lens, through my platform points of engagement, advocacy and clarity, through a cross-college mentorship program, working with different ambassador programs as well as students who want to give back to other fellow students.”
Q: What are your thoughts on your election being uncontested?
“Having my position be uncontested has made me want to work even harder because when you have multiple people running for a position sometimes messages can become discombobulated or confused, but I believe I have a real opportunity here to share my message with my fellow students and translate my platform points in a more direct manner and work even harder for everyone around me.”
Q: How do you plan on increasing SGA transparency?
“One of my main platform points is clarity, so I have many ideas underneath the platform of clarity but one of them being an Executive Council town hall. So I want to have all members of the Executive Council there, that being president, vice president, all the VP cabinets, so students.”
Q: What is one last thing you want voters to know about you?
“I want the voters to know that I am striving to be a humble servant leader above all, and when I take on a task or roll, I put a hundred percent of my efforts into that. And so, I will work for each and every one of you, and I hope that you all will join me in taking off with Matwiyoff on Feb. 27 from 7 to 7 on myBama.”
