McHugh Elected Class of 2027 President

Credit: Ava Battinelli ‘26

Students, candidates and members of the Marist College Student Government Association (SGA) gathered in the Murray Student Center on Thursday night, eagerly awaiting the results of the fall 2023 SGA elections.

Liam McHugh was elected Class of 2027 president by the narrowest of margins, defeating runner-up Kyla Sevim 64-63. The extraordinarily narrow race saw a two-vote separation between first and third place as Quinn Bender finished with 62 votes.

Michael Russo will serve alongside him as Class of 2027 vice president and Samantha Mattioli, who won the race for Class of 2027 treasurer. Evan Spillane, the incumbent Class of 2025 president, was reelected for another term.

Three candidates were elected for the open campus representative positions: Katrina Syrota ‘26 will serve as international student representative again, Arman Boff ‘25 will take over as the transfer student representative and Ethan Deschamps ‘27 will become the new South End representative. 

Still open are the Class of 2025 historian, secretary and treasurer positions; now that elections have commenced, Student Body President Amanda DeFalco ‘24 and Vice President Mia Hemme ‘24 will appoint people to fill those roles.

With the new electees in place, Carly Malfatto, the SGA’s director of elections, detailed the steps they will take to integrate within SGA.

“Once they’re elected, the [DeFalco] and [Hemme] will help explain what the rules and procedures are,” said Malfatto. “[The new electees] will start going to assembly meetings, which happen every Wednesday, and that’s where we vote on bills that are being passed, we vote on clubs that want to come [get chartered].

The process to facilitate the fall elections was long, with Malfatto and her Deputy Director of Elections, Bella Cometti ‘26, beginning preparations in May. After solidifying the election schedule over the summer and handling the logistics, the two could sit back and let the results play out.

“[Malfatto] and I were shocked and excited about all of the interest in student government because there is a massive improvement since last year with the freshman class especially,” said Cometti. “We’re just really excited to have everyone be involved.”

Malfatto and Cometti will now prepare for the SGA’s spring elections, working to ensure another smooth election process.