Harriet Falconetti
SGA campaign flyers hanging up in the Tivoli on Apr. 17, 2025.
Official results are in from the Spring 2025 CU Denver Student Election, which closed at 5 p.m. on April 18.
Mauro, who currently serves as the Vice President, will begin serving as the SGA President, while Diaz will serve as Vice President.
Mauro and Diaz won by a slim margin, garnering 552 votes out of 1,065. Their opponents, Jalissa Vega and Elizabeth Thomason secured 513 votes, losing by only 39 votes.
Mauro, a fourth year undergraduate in public administration, has previously served as a Senator and as Chair of the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board, along with currently serving as SGA Vice President. Diaz, a second-year criminal justice and psychology major, has not previously served in a SGA position, but has served as Vice President of CU Denver’s Pre-Law Society and the UCD chapter of the Sigma Lambda Beta fraternity. Diaz also holds the position of ‘Student Project Manager’ within the Office of Student Life.
This mixed experience was emphasized throughout Mauro and Diaz’s campaign, with the duo arguing that Mauro’s SGA experience prepared them for leadership, while Diaz’s outsider perspective would bring fresh ideas to SGA.
Their campaign, however, was not without incident, as current SGA President Savannah Brooks, who serves alongside Mauro, chose to endorse Vega and Thomason, citing disagreements between her and Mauro as her reason why. Brooks, who did not seek reelection, originally planned to run again with Mauro, and chose not to due to disagreements over values and student government.
Nevertheless, Mauro and Diaz plan to continue the efforts of the Brooks/Mauro administration, including work on CU’s food pantry, addressing student mental health concerns and improving SGA’s relationship with student organizations.
Along with electing a new SGA administration, CU Denver students passed the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Fee. The fee passed with wide support, with 922 students voting in support, and 567 students voting against the fee. The new fee, which causes a net increase to student fees of $62, will be implemented in fall of 2025. Funding from the fee will help to bring CU Denver’s staffing levels up to national recommendations, improving timeliness of response, as well as continue to fund a 24/7 counseling app and mental health programming.
In order for the fee to pass, at least 10% of the student body needed to vote. With a total voter count of 1,498, turnout passed the 10% requirement, allowing the fee to pass.
President and Vice President were not the only positions that SGA filled in this election. Six College Council Representatives were elected, including: Andy Xiao (Business School), Michelle Favorite (College of Architecture and Planning), Micaela Delarosa (College of Arts and Media), Faduma Abdile (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences), Jyothi Kela (College of Education and Human Development), Najma Ahmed (School of Public Affairs).
No representative for the College of Engineering, Design and Computing was elected, as there was no candidate running in that position and not enough votes for a Write-In Candidate to win. Write-In Candidates must receive 30 votes in order to win.
SGA also elected a new Director of Communications, Jess Shelton, as well as an Associate Director of Communications, Bharath Kumar Lakkakula.
Nine people were elected for the Senator at Large positions, including: Armando Jarmillo, Rishitha Nileshkumar Patel, Sumit Shah, Mariam Waite, Supriya Gosavi, Jackson Elliott, Mike Leaser, Jared Bynum, Prateek Gothwal.
The election also included some amendments to the SGA constitution, most of which were updates to outdated language. One notable change is that the signature requirement for recalls of SGA representatives was lowered from 15% of the student body to 10%.
The newly elected SGA representatives will be sworn in on May 9.