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MEET THE SBP CANDIDATES
Benigno Murtha
Tsau
Aggie Story
Joseph Benigno grew up in Austin with an Ag
gie dad and a Longhorn mom — a house divided
— but it wasn’t much of a question as to which
university he would attend.
“My dad was an Aggie, his brothers were Aggies,
my other uncle on the other side was an Aggie,”
Benigno said. “Guys I looked up to in high school
who mentored me, that led Bible studies, those were
Aggies. My pastor was an Aggie, and so it started
to become very clear to me early in high school
that the men that I wanted to be like were Fightin’
Texas Aggies.”
Since Benigno stepped on campus as a student, he
has been involved in Student Government Associa
tion. As a freshman, he was in Fish Aides and the
SGA Legislative Relations committee. As a sopho
more, Benigno was a student senator and policy
manager for Kyle Kelly’s campaign.
Benigno is also a member of Brotherhood of
Christian Aggies, but he has spent the last semester
as SGA executive vice president, which helped mo
tivate his decision to run.
“I’m really thankful I got to spend a semester
close to the position and be able to make an in
formed decision,” Benigno said. “The last thing I
want to do would be to make a decision and not
fully understand what it takes to be student body
president.”
Platform
Benigno said the chief purpose and power of the
position is to be an advocate for students.
“I don’t get to make rules, I get to advocate on
behalf of the student body to the administration,”
Benigno said. “And the relationships I’ve made this
year as vice president and the relationships that I
plan on continuing to make I think are very impor
tant for the student body, because at the end of the
day we can say that we want a bunch of things, but
we have to go to the administration.”
With his platform, Benigno hopes to build on the
tenure of Kelly and strengthen student ties.
“The goal, vision and purpose for our campaign
is to preserve the best of our past and promote the
best of our future,” Benigno said.
Benigno wants to increase attendance at Silver
Taps and endow Silver Taps travel costs for families
who are financially unable to attend the ceremonies.
“We. never want families to not be able to see
the outpour of love the Aggie family has through
the tradition of Silver Taps because they financially
can’t make it,” Benigno said.
Benigno also said he wants to strengthen the tra
dition of Muster by sending out student represen
tatives April 21 to Muster ceremonies around the
state.
Benigno said he will advocate for tax-free text
books.
“We go to a Texas state public institution, I don’t
think there’s an reason we should be paying Texas
state taxes,” Benigno said.
In light of a recent City Council ordinances tar
geting multiple students living in the same residence,
Benigno said he will push for student representation
in Bryan-College Station politics.
“We have reached out to them, and we do know
they are receptive to the idea of having a non-voting
advocate for the student body to represent students
at meetings,” Benigno said. “Regardless of whether
or not I win, that’s something we need now.”
Aggie Story
Coming from a Catholic family and a high school
with a strong football culture, Michael Murtha said
he originally wanted to attend Notre Dame and try
to walk on the football team.
“I’m a first generation Aggie — my family is all
from up North, so I actually grew up with every
one wanting me to be Rudy from Notre Dame,”
Murtha said.
Eight sports-related concussions and one auto acci
dent later, however, Murtha decided to change course.
“So, I started thinking, if I’m not going to go to
Notre Dame and try to walk on, I want to find a
school that is enriched in tradition, just like Notre
Dame,” he said. “Then I came to A&M, and I think
it’s more enriched in tradition than Notre Dame.”
After his injury, Murtha said he adopted a life
motto — “You only have so many seconds.” He
said this motto motivates him to leave the best pos
sible impact during his time as a Fish Camp coun
selor, Class Councils vice president of Class of 2016,
Old Ags member, student senator, transportation
advisory system member, St. Mary’s Rite of Chris
tian Initiation for Adults mentor. Muster host and
campus EMT.
Platform
Murtha said his decision to run for office was
cultivated at the Spencer Leadership Conference
but born out of the belief that there is a disconnect
between groups on campus.
“So I was seeing a lack of representation and I
wanted to fix it, so I ran for senate,” Murtha said.
“When I became a senator, I saw that there were
so many things that we could still improve on. We
are making good strides in the right direction, but I
think we need more of a bump to get there.”
As such, Murtha said his platform aims to en
sure that SGA can maintain the Aggie experience as
the university grows with initiatives like 25 by 25.
Murtha said student government represents only 1.9
percent of the student population.
“Almost everything else — parking, transporta
tion, dining — falls under that representation, it’s
lacking,” Murtha said. “We can, as a Student Senate,
pass a bill to get rid of meal plans, for instance — the
trades, not the whole thing — but we don’t know
who we are really representing when we only have
1.9 percent.”
Murtha’s answer to this comes in the form of a
“Unification Council,” a student opinion coun
cil that would be run by roughly 10 student lead
ers, including the MSC president, RHA president
and Student Senate speaker. The council will hold
monthly meetings with groups of student organiza
tion presidents.
Murtha also wants to start an SEC wide-charity
project, possibly through the Big Event. Murtha
said he has not yet consulted Big Event directors,
but he envisions a charity project on the same day
and at the same time with live feeds to other SEC
campuses.
“We would train them to run the Big Event,”
Murtha said. “I know that we have already been
training other universities how to run the Big Event,
but we would just train the SEC schools.”
Murtha said he also supports priority registration
for veterans as, well as mandatory excused absences
for job interviews.
“Right now it’s at the discretion of professors,
and we wanted to make it a mandatory thing,”
Murtha said.
Aggie Story
For Isaiah Tsau, growing up as a first-generation
American instilled in him characteristics that bode
well at A&M.
Tsau said his father — a Chinese immigrant who
taught himself computer programming and worked
his way up from small companies to working as a
software engineer for NASA — taught him the val
ue of hard work while his mom — a special-needs
teacher who works with cancer patients from China
at M.D. Anderson — reminds him of the value of
humility.
Tsau said he came to A&M when his brother was
a senior on campus and the first thing he noticed was
the Aggie family.
“I remember from day one, the first thing that
stuck out to me was when you meet someone they
say, ‘Howdy’ — number one. Number two, they
look you dead in the eye and number three, they
just crush your hand.”
Because he is paying his way through college,
Tsau said he has worked a wide array of jobs to pay
off loans.
“I remember my freshman year when I paid off
my tuition, I walked in between the skywalk be
tween the MSC and Rudder, found a little corner
for myself, called home and said, ‘Mom, I have $42
in my account,”’ Tsau said. “That’s probably the
only time in my life I ^sked my dad for money.”
Tsau said he draws inspiration from some of the
cancer patients his mom worked with who have
passed away. Their zest for life pushes him to be
grateful for the opportunities in life.
Tsau said he is looking to empower others on
campus and engage more of the thousands of stu
dents who don’t get involved during elections.
Platform
In a population of more than 50,000, Tsau said
campus is home to a diverse set of people and that
this diversity comes in many forms, including in
tellectual, cultural, ethnic, gender, work experi
ence and socioeconomic diversity. The goal of his
platform is to address this diversity in a way that is
more engaging than current student body president
roundtables.
One of his bigger goals is the creation of the “Pass
It Back App,” either as a separate mobile app or an
extension of the TAMU mobile app. Tsau said this
app would allow students to send concerns directly
to the student body president.
With the app, Tsau said students will be able to
request things like CARPOOL or Corps of Cadets
escorts with the push of a button. Tsau said he also
hopes to build an anonymous reporting capability
into the app. Tsau said he hopes to have a prototype
soon, but there are still logistical problems in need
of further development.
Tsau said he would like to revamp the SBP news
letter with catered notifications of various events on
campus, including Silver Taps and sporting events,
according to the user’s decision.
Tsau also hopes to advocate for increased parking
on campus, reasonable permit pricing and pardons
for a student’s first parking violation.
Tsau said he hopes to reach out to groups within
the Department of Multicultural Services and across
campus.
“If you are involved in SGA, I’d like to see you
reaching out more to different areas of campus,”
Tsau said.
Photos by Shelby Knowles, written by Aimee Breaux
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BATT AS KS: What do you look for in a student body president candidate?
"I look for someone that knows "I want a candidate that genuinely
a lot of people, so they can get cares about making a difference for
a diverse group of people and the student body."
Opinions." Taylor Smith, communication senior
Taylor Seaman, math junior
"Someone that can make Texas "I want someone who is very
A&M better by thinking outside the servant hearted, wants to make a
box and challenging the status quo.” difference and is willing to reach
Taylor Wilson, ecosystem science and Out to the students."
management graduate Sarah &bson scjence sen|or
"I want someone who is organized,
personable and responsible."
Katie Bell, allied health sophomore
Shelby Knowles — THE BA 7 iALION
Voting for student body president begins at 9 a.m. Thursday and ends at 3 p.m. Friday