Campaign season for Dartmouth Student Government has begun. Two candidates are running for student body president: general house senator Sabik Jawad ’26 and East Wheelock senator Jack Wisdom ’26. Campaigning began on April 20, and a debate hosted by The Dartmouth between the presidential tickets will be held on Saturday, April 26.
How Campaigning Works
Each candidate for office receives $300 in campaign funding from the Elections Planning and Advisory Committee, according to student body president Chukwuka Odigbo ’25. Candidates are not allowed to spend money aside from this fund.
Student body president and vice president are separately elected positions. However, candidates running on a president-vice president ticket are able to share funds, resulting in a total campaign budget of $600. Both Jawad and Wisdom are running on president-vice president tickets.is
Campaign funds are generally spent on in-person student outreach “tabling” events, according to Odigbo.
“I encourage people to talk to the candidates directly,” Odigbo added.
The Jawad Campaign
Jawad and his running mate Harper Richardson ’27 hold leadership positions in the Student Workers Collective at Dartmouth. The pair are running for office to set DSG’s “priorities straight” and take a more “confrontational approach” with College administrators, according to Jawad in an interview with The Dartmouth.
“When I came into DSG my freshman year, it was an actual advocacy organization,” Jawad said. “But [after the May 1 protests], DSG saw itself more as a liaison working for the administration and communicating to students.”
“[DSG] is focused on doing very expensive wellness projects [while] actively avoiding issues that might get them at odds with administration,” Jawad added.
In an email statement to the Dartmouth, Richardson wrote that top issues on campus include the rights of non-citizen students, dining automation and student health.
The pair’s plans to address those issues include implementation of Jawad’s $15,000 student emergency fund, the establishment of a dining governing board and the introduction of medical supply vending machines, Richardson wrote.
Jawad has previously served as project director and student life committee chair for DSG.
The Wisdom Campaign
Wisdom and his running-mate Favion Harvard ’26 are running for office to address “inefficiencies” in Student Government, according to Wisdom in an interview with The Dartmouth.
“We have large, bloated committees that result in uneven participation,” Wisdom said. “We arrive at the meeting, and we’re slowed down because people haven’t done their homework or people haven’t actually written out proposals.”
The campaign’s top issues include “meal swipe restrictions,” “student worker representation and union rights” and the status of international students, according to Wisdom.
Harvard said he first ran for DSG because of a “lack of diversity on the Senate” in an interview with The Dartmouth.
“I want other students, especially POC students, to know you have someone that looks like you in different [executive] positions around campus,” Harvard said.
During his freshman year, Wisdom created DSG’s student issues survey. DSG presents data from the survey to administrators and the Board of Trustees. Data from the survey was used in the reimplantation of late night dining at the Class of 1953 Commons following the coronavirus pandemic, according to Wisdom.
Wisdom and Harvard were sponsors of a constitutional review task force during the winter term.
Odigbo repeatedly urged students to vote. Last year’s voter turnout was a 58% increase from the year before. Online voting for the 2025–26 Student Government will open on April 28 at 5 p.m. and close on April 29 at 5 p.m.
Jackson Hyde '28 is an intended philosophy major from Los Angeles, California. His interests include photography, meditation, and board game design.
