Eastern Illinois University’s student government is holding elections for executive positions April 14 through April 15.  

The Daily Eastern News interviewed each candidate and shared their responses.  

Student Body President:  

Taylor Cloud is a junior communication disorder sciences major and is the current student body president.   

“I have already been in it for a year, and I think I can do wonderful things in this office,” Cloud said. “I wanted to do more last year, and I didn’t get the chance to do that.”   

Cloud said the search for the vice president of student affairs position, which was vacant at the start, slowed down action in the first semester.  

“We had a couple of unforeseen circumstances, and I had to do a separate election for the vice president of student affairs in order to get that position filled, and that took up quite a lot of my first semester,” Cloud said.  

Cloud said a large issue facing the campus is the disconnection some feel.  

“While we are a community, I feel like we don’t necessarily feel as if we can reach out to people as much as we should be able to,” Cloud said. “Just because that’s a really important thing, especially at a college campus where most of the time, you focus more on your studies rather than yourself.”  

Cloud also said she wants to continue to focus on mental health.  

“I already have some preliminary plans for some mental health tabling and potentially some different activates,” Cloud said. “It’s more of a broad scope there.”  

In addition, Cloud wants to continue her work on sexual assault awareness.   

“I did a charity ball, [and] it was successful but not necessarily as successful as I wanted it to be, so I definitely think there are some different ideas and stuff I can work on,” Cloud said.  

Reagan Robson is a junior political science major and is currently a student senator and chair of the alumni relations committee.  

“I have always had a passion for SGA. Since joining four semesters ago, I always knew that SBP was the most aligning role for myself,” Robson said. “I love planning events, bringing members of our campus together and providing for EIU.”  

Robson shared a common point with Cloud saying the biggest issue on campus is disconnect in the student body.  

“I feel there’s definitely a disconnection between underclassmen and upperclassmen. So, I feel like bridging the gap and bringing people together through a sequence of events and some initiatives that I have planned,” Robson said. “I would like to create a link on the EIU website that allows past, present and future panthers to mingle on, ask questions, receive advice.”  

Robson also has plans for the campus involving the local community.  

“I want to collect animal things for the Coles County animal shelter, I kinda wanna make it part of Neighborhood Week to see what resident hall could collect the most,” Robson said. “I want to have a rummage drive each semester and donate to people who are in need.”  

For sexual assault awareness, Robson wants to host an event to get the campus involved.  

“I would like to work with HOPE and Prevail and have a dodgeball event. I feel like that’s a great way to get like everybody on campus involved,” Robson said.  

Robson also wants to work with housing and dining about its food, which she said has garnered complaints.  

“I want to work and discuss trying to operate more transparency with housing and dining on the food here,” Robson said.  

Executive Vice President:  

Mason Tegeler is a sophomore political science civic and nonprofit leadership major and currently the VPSA.  

Tegeler says there is a problem regarding student involvement in student government.  

“One of the biggest issues that the student government has at the moment is the lack of engagement,” Tegeler said. “I don’t think students always see the value in what we do, and they’re not aware that we’re an organization who is here to represent them and fight on their behalf.”  

As a result, Tegeler wants to increase engagement in student government.  

“I really want to be able to reach out to students in different ways through social media and things like that,” Tegeler said.  “[I want] town halls that SGA hosts can voice their concerns about really specific issues.”  

In the meetings the EVP has with administration, Tegeler wants to make the concerns of students clean.   

“In those meetings, I think it’s really important that we come prepared to tell those people what students have been talking about, that’s why I really want to implement,” Tegeler said.  

The EVP runs the student action team which works with state and local officials. Tegeler wants to focus on engaging students in the spring 2026 elections.  

“I want to get more students engaged civically, so that means in the primaries next spring getting out and canvassing for candidates that they support,” Tegeler said. “Getting people out there engaged politically, that one of the main purposes of the organization.”  

Tegeler also wants the SAT to focus on volunteer work and provide opportunities for the members.  

As the EIU representative to the Illinois Board of Higher education, Tegeler wants to take student input to the board.  

“What I need to do serving as the liaison there is collect what students are feeling, what do they want these really important decision makers to hear and relay that to them,” Tegeler said.  

Anna Jones is a freshman finance major and a current student senator and chair of the business affairs committee.   

“I’m running for EVP because I personally believe that there is change that can be done in the EIU community,” Jones said.   

Jones said that student’s concerns are in the dining and residence halls. Jones wants to have events where students can express their concerns.  

“I was thinking of events with the higher-ups in housing in dining,” Jones said. “Where students can come in and ask questions as to what’s going on.”  

In meetings with administration officials Jones wants to make student concerns known.  

“My priorities would definitely be to hammer as far as what students want, because currently, there are changes that are being done to the buildings,” Jones said. “However, they’re not necessarily changes that are as recommended from the student population.”  

As head of the SAT, Jones wants to increase the members’ understanding of politics.   

“I would like to further educate the students on political knowledge as far as who are the representatives in not just their own districts but as well as the district here in Charleston so that they’re more aware of what they may want here at the school or in the community as well as what they may want back at home,” Jones said.  

On the education front, Jones wants to help students work with their professors.  

“I’d like to further prioritize student’s abilities to be able to further engage more with their professors,” Jones said. “I know that everyone’s schedule doesn’t necessarily lineup the best, but I would like to be able to promote more methods like tutoring services that are outside of professor’s office hours, getting students more comfortable with being able to email the professors if they have any questions as well.”  

Vice President of Academic Affairs:  

Running unopposed, John Slater is a junior political science major and current student senator who he says is running to make EIU better.  

“It’s important that we look at what we love, and we try to make it better,” Slater said. “I have some ideas that I think could help in the academic sector.”  

Slater said there are a lot of smaller problems that stem from mishandling resources.   

I do plan on trying to bring a lot of those resources to the forefront trying to get those out to as many students as possible, whether that be hosting events for it, putting little advertisements around, send emails out, whatever it might be,” Slater said.   

Serving on the council of academic affairs, Slater wants to work with everyone on the committee and students.  

“I represent all students,” Slater said. “Working with everyone on that committee of academic affairs, trying to figure out what problems they see and talk about those problems in a way that a student sees them.”  

In the VPAA meetings with the deans, Slater wants to do the same thing in bringing the student perspective.  

“The problems that they [the deans] see talking about them from a student view as well as bringing the students’ problems to their view, because I know that a lot of times administration and students are somewhat disconnected,” Slater said.  

Vice President of Student Affairs:  

Running unopposed, Claire Weber is a freshman political science major and is chair of the diversity affairs committee who wants to keep doing her work with diversity.  

“I wanted to have a bigger role with handling diversity on campus and preserving that,” Weber said.   

Weber also said she wants to help ease the process of starting an RSO.   

“It’s not always laid out and there’s really no set person to go to for questions,” Weber said. “I want to work on starting up some workshops for people wanting to start an RSO.”  

As the head of the diversity in action council, Weber has two main priorities.  

“One is working closely with multicultural RSOs on campus,” Weber said. “Second priority would be highlighting the diverse majors and minors.”  

Elected Senator:  

At the end of a student senators’ term, they must be elected to stay on the senate.  

Valerie Harmon is a freshman accounting major and a current student senator who is running for elected senator to continue her work past the end of her term.  

“I do want to continue helping out Eastern the way I can am the way I have been doing,” Harmon said.  

Harmon said her role in committees would depend on what she is picked for but in whatever role she will help students.   

“I’m just going to be really there just to help in any capacity and assist the executive board,” Harmon said. “Also getting input from students because that’s what we’re here to do.” 

Katarina Maxson is a junior political science major and current student senator.  

“I made the decision to run for elected senator just to feel better about being elected by the students and really be able to serve my community,” Maxson said.  

Maxson said she wants to get diverse thoughts to help students.  

“We all have totally different situations as students, so I want to be able to best represent everyone in different ways,” Maxson said.  

Maxson’s goals are to continue to raise awareness for sexual assault.  

 “I know that I can up those events [and] try to get people to come to them more, because it is really important to understand your safety,” Maxson said.  

Student Trustee:  

Running unopposed, senior civic and nonprofit leadership major Madison Veatch is the current speaker of the senate. The student trustees serves as a voice of the student body on the EIU board of trustees. 

“I am running for student trustee because I find it to be a very important role as a student leader, and I want to continue bringing awareness of upper administration and the board of trustees to students,” Veatch said in an email. 

Veatch wants to make sure in her position that students voices get heard, according to slides presented during her platform statement at the student senate last Wednesday.    

Veatch also wants to push transparency and communication. 

“I think a major problem with EIU is the level of transparency there is with upper administration to the student body. As student trustee, I would like to advocate for more transparency with the students,” Veatch said. 

She wants to have affordability and financial support as well as Mental health and wellbeing help for students.   

“One of my major priorities is to have a more inclusive environment for students, faculty and staff,” Veatch said. 

She also wants to promote enhancing campus life and equity for students. 

Jason Coulombe can be reached at 581-2812 or at jmcoulombe@eiu.edu.