A little more than a week has passed since the race for the Student Government Association’s (SGA) next president and vice president concluded, with incumbent Vice President Aleko Zeppos being elected president and former SGA Campus Climate Committee Chair Sidney Mbah elected vice president. Since last Tuesday, the two have aimed to begin quickly.
“It’s been a long week of meetings and presentations to committees and working internally with student government, saying goodbye to our wonderful seniors, but there’s a lot going on this campus and we’re here for every minute of it,” Zeppos said. “[Villanova students] knew we could take on challenges and it’s been a test, but we’ve been going strong and just getting stronger.”
Now, with the election over and a year-long term on the horizon for Zeppos and Mbah, The Villanovan spoke with them to discuss Villanova, current issues and plans for the upcoming calendar year under the pair’s leadership. They also shared their thoughts on the ongoing fallout from the Juan Eguigeren case, who was identified as an alleged accomplice in a sexual assault that took place on campus in 2022 and the ensuing protest this past weekend.
“It’s a top priority, for sure,” Zeppos said. “We’ve been included in a lot of meetings this past week alone regarding that and it’s truly horrible what happened. We’ve been working directly with Public Safety to go on these ‘safety walks’ through the Commons and through West Campus and see how [long] the card readers [are opening] the doors to make sure that’s a safe amount of time, to talk about blue light systems, talk about lighting.”
Additionally, Zeppos announced that SGA will be appointing a new senator, designed to bring representation to health and safety issues on campus. Another thing high-up on the agenda: the redoing of the South Campus mural, a passion project for Zeppos.
“We already have a few wonderful submissions that I opened up [Monday morning] and they looked terrific,” Zeppos said. “I wanna get that mural [redone], it’s been weathered for too long and it’s a poor representation of this beautiful community we have here at Villanova…I’ll continue to fight for that and I think getting a fresh coat of paint on that mural is the first step to showing new students what this community is about and representing us in a positive light.”
Mbah’s passions look towards community-building and campus-wide events, designed to let Villanovans have a fun time and get to know other peers.
“A Villanova field day,” Mbah said. “I’m thinking it’d be fun. So, we may want to push that. It just builds up spirits at Villanova and I think that’s the goal, to bring our community together.”
Outside of those, an issue of great importance to both men was one raised by their opponents on the campaign trail: transparency to the Villanova community, including the handling of SGA’s website.
“We’re gonna really try and be out there, not [annoyingly so] but persistently, be in the faces of students, be tabling out by the Oreo, an idea Sidney had and we’ve been doing a very good job at that,” Zeppos said. “We’re also updating our website, I’m finishing that up today with one of our senators. We wanna make sure that’s up and running, that’s up to date. Our Instagram is very good, but there are areas that we want to get cleaned up, [as well].”
Updates across campus are another thing both are looking to accomplish over the next year, including introductions to the new Cabrini Campus, set to open in 2026. They also are making a push towards acquiring free menstrual product dispensers for use in all academic buildings.
“We have a great team of SGA reps that were recently re-elected and they brought legislation to the table last semester and we turned that into action,” Zeppos said. “We had the two free menstrual product dispensers, bought by SGA on campus in Mendel and Tolentine and we’re looking to expand that and do all academic buildings, because it’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity.”
In addition, Mbah and Zeppos are looking to continue dining updates, as have been seen this semester with food additions to Cafe Nova and the addition of to-go boxes to all-you-can-eat dining halls across campus.
“I think we’re gonna continue to make improvements to dining, I definitely have a lot of ideas, maybe extending hours in some cases on the weekends, but we understand eating is vital to the student’s life,” Mbah said. “We wanna make sure that [Villanova dining] is at the highest prestige possible, so we can get the students living the best lives on Villanova’s campus as possible.”
In terms of the to-go boxes, something that has received mixed receptions by students across Villanova, Zeppos is hoping to blend the line of transparency and information for Villanovans.
“It’s been in a lot of talks with myself and dining, and we’re gonna set up an informational town hall or something of the sorts where we have all the facts there for students,” Zeppos said. “We want to make sure this is the right program and it’s the right way we’re implementing it to the student body and gaining feedback from the students is step one. It’s only been in action for a month now, and I’ve seen the ups, I’ve seen the downs [and] I just want to make sure that voices are heard and we’re putting together the best end goal.”
Both President Zeppos and Vice President Mbah’s passion and genuine care for Villanova is evident and both hope to make an impact on Villanova and its students in a number of ways that goes beyond their time in the role.
