Angela El-Jazzar is currently the treasurer of Suffolk University’s Student Government Association (SGA). But this election season, she one of three candidates who hope to become the senate’s next president.
El-Jazzar is a sophomore economics major with a minor in business law and ethics. She was a Class of 2023 senator her freshman year and has served on SGA’s finance, student affairs and awards committees.
As treasurer, El-Jazzar and the finance committee cut the $97 activities fee students pay each semester in half during the 2020-2021 academic years.
She said she also created a program that provides commuter students with day-long parking passes at a garage near campus for a reduced rate, secured free MBTA passes for commuter students and made the initiatives process — which clubs on campus go through to request money for events and other needs from SGA — easier for student leaders.
“It was never about me or what I thought was right,” El-Jazzar said. “It was only after talking to students, sending out surveys and getting comments that I built my initiatives [as treasurer] around the community I love.”
If elected as president, El-Jazzar said she plans to lead not just by listening, “but by bringing [students’] concerns to the floor.”
She said she will organize an SGA committee that is dedicated to listening to students’ concerns. Specifically, by monitoring a Google Form where students can anonymously share concerns that will be addressed by SGA’s senate each week.
El-Jazzar said she will also also have a Zoom link and email that will always be open to students looking to share their concerns, rather than just have a few hours set aside at the same time for this each week.
She looks to start a mental health initiative, as well as a committee or group of students dedicated to fighting food insecurity on campus. Part of this would include creating and monitoring a form where students could request care packages with toiletries, El-Jazzar said.
El-Jazzar has been the public relations co-chair for Suffolk’s Arab Student Association for two years, and was the public relations co-chair for Rammython and part of the Football Club’s public relations committee her freshman year. She also received a word for being an emerging leader by Suffolk’s Journey Program.
Currently, she works as a career ambassador and is part of the marketing team for Suffolk’s Career Services. Last semester, El-Jazzar was a teacher’s assistant for a Sawyer Business School first-year seminar that was part of the INTO Program.
In that role, El-Jazzar helped international students adjust to a new life at an American university — something that is close to her heart, since she moved to the United States from Saudi Arabia four years ago.
“A thing I tie back to always is taking action and putting myself in other people’s places…” she said. “There’s so much more to be done and to be talked about.”
She aims to foster diversity by having more events or ways to recognize students of color and those from cultures around the world.
El-Jazzar said she would also advocate for less-restrictive guest policies in residence halls during the pandemic to help enhance students’ mental health. And if the issue of arming Suffolk’s police department was to come up again, she said she would listen to the will of the students.
“Any decision I’ve made through my role as a leader has been made through student feedback…” El-Jazzar said. “In the end if the issue is affecting Suffolk students, then it’s my duty to uphold the representation of every party.”
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