FIU students took to the polls this past March 11-12 to elect the student government for the upcoming 2026-27 year, with one clear winner: Paws for Change.
Jorge Cardona | Staff Writer
The student party, which claims to stand for “Consistency, Honesty, Accountability, and New Growth for Everyone,” came away from this year’s elections with a victory in the races for President/VP, BBC campus governor, and a considerable number of Senate seats.
The President/VP race pitted the Paws for Change ticket, with Alyssa Mederos and Isabella Romeo as the respective candidates, against the ticket made up by German Mata and Jerilyn Davis, with Mederos and Romeo winning 1,439 votes to Mata and Davis’ 1,201 votes.
In a statement for PantherNOW, Mederos and Romeo expressed: “As your President and Vice President-elect, we are deeply grateful for the trust Panthers have placed in us to lead and represent the FIU student body. In the coming months, our first order of business will be to ensure that the Student Government Association is fully staffed and operating at its highest capacity by filling all appointed positions and implementing strong onboarding and training.”
They further added, “In our first 100 days and beyond, students can expect a student government that is proactive, responsive, and committed to continuous improvement. We will remain focused on strengthening student engagement, advocating for student needs, and implementing initiatives that enhance the overall student experience.”
Paws for Change ran Sarah Mayorca, a first-year journalism student without prior experience in student government, for BBC Governor, and she won the race with 179 votes to her opponent, BBC Senator Tanner Croddy’s 91 votes.
Paws also won several of the SGA Senate races, winning Hospitality Senator, Public Health & Social Work Senator, and Nursing & Health Sciences Senator, as well as eight out of the eleven CASE Senator seats, four of the six Business seats, three of the four MMC Housing seats, two of the six Engineering seats, one of three SIPA seats and one of two Upper Division seats.
This gives Paws for Change a total of 22 SGA Senate seats out of the 43 up for election. Two of these future Senators provided statements for this article.
Naomy Suarez is a political science and pre-law student and one of three future SIPA Senators, winning 86 votes in this year’s election. Suarez told PantherNOW that she chose to run because she has “…a history of being in Student Government, and I want to make a change at FIU.”
“I want to make sure that the SIPA students feel represented and that their voices are heard. Some of my initiatives that I will be focusing on first are to offer walk-in headshots for free…Another one is an advocate for reduced parking rates. We already pay so much for tuition and books, parking should not be an issue for our students”, said Suarez.
Alejandro Madrigal is a second-year accounting student going into pre-law and a future Business Senator, winning 138 votes.
“In my role as a Senator, I would like to see students have a clear idea of how their fees are being spent, organizations fairly and efficiently access funding, and make sure Senate decisions have a real POSITIVE impact on the lives of students,” Madrigal told PantherNOW.
He further added, “On some of my initial moves, I will focus on enhancing the communication between students and SGA, simplifying funding mechanisms to student organizations, and promoting awareness of resources already existing on campus in order to ensure that students can exploit them to the fullest.”
About Post Author
