Meet the Candidates forum guides student voters
By Cal Sutton
Rider’s Student Government Association hosted a Meet the Candidates forum on April 2 to assist the student body in voting for SGA’s executive board in the 2026-27 academic year.
The forum hosted candidates for student body president, executive vice president and vice president of administration and finance.
The first candidate to take the stage in the Rue Auditorium was junior finance major Peyton Gerig, the candidate for vice president of administration and finance.
Gerig is a member of Rider’s chapter of Delta Sigma Pi, a professional business fraternity, and previously served as its vice president of finance. He also recently completed a co-op with Johnson and Johnson in January.
This year’s Vice President of Administration and Finance Andrew Antigua, senior accounting major, kicked off the Q&A by asking Gerig how he plans to confront potential biases toward clubs and organizations.
“I want to look at every club and organization the same,” Gerig said. “I want to see this as an [even] playing field, this isn’t a power-level thing.”
Gerig plans to judge organizations’ financial requests not just by the group’s size or popularity, but their individual, genuine needs.
Gerig has experience since his freshman year leading organizations and says he has strong communication skills that can help him lead in SGA.
When asked about how he plans to approach the pressures of balancing student organizations’ finances while also being in communication with administration, Gerig expressed that he has no problem asking for help when necessary.
“If I need help from my finance board, I will ask,” Gerig said. “If I need help, I am more than willing to ask for it.”
Freshman behavioral neuroscience major Catherine Potgieter is the uncontested candidate for executive vice president of SGA for next year.
Though Potgieter is a freshman, she comes bearing knowledge and experience from before college and was involved in speech and debate for all four years of her high school career.
Potgieter is the freshman class chair and is part of the Making Connections Program. She is a member of the Gail Bierenbaum Leadership Council, Leaders in College, Rider’s Baccalaureate Honors Program and is a HISPA role model.
Potgieter plans to make senate meetings feel more open to majors not commonly represented in SGA, such as science-related majors, to bring diversity to the group, as well as making them more casual to help the average student not feel intimidated by senate.
“I would like to see more diverse majors involved [in SGA],” Potgieter said. “I would love to be able to reach those audiences given my position in my major. … I feel like being executive vice president would show them that [involvement] is possible.”
She said she wants SGA to better help students with small tasks that may negatively impact their enjoyment of college so they can feel more comfort in college activities.
“[Financial aid and scheduling classes] are the things that we need to be streamlining for students so that they can actually enjoy the really big things that Rider has to offer,” Potgieter said.
Junior human resources management major Lizbeth Ortiz and junior political science major Jaiden David are running for SGA’s student body president for the 2026-27 academic year.
David serves as the vice president of Rider’s chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. and the director of comedy and game shows for the Student Entertainment Council.
Along with Ortiz’s involvement in Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc. as the secretary, academic chair and Rider’s delegate, she is an Equal Opportunity Program scholar and was part of All Broncs BELONG Alliance. She is also the founder and president of Rider’s DominiRicans club.
If elected, Ortiz plans to connect SGA and the student body, even outside of formal settings like senate.
“This whole campaign, I have been talking to people one on one, getting to know them and having them get to know me as well,” Ortiz said.
David wants to help students by connecting them with the people and things they may need to be successful and thrive at Rider, such as the Counseling Center and Academic Success Center to assist them with their emotional and academic needs.
“The Academic Success Center [and the Counseling Center] are things that need to be talked about,” David said. “Students cannot use resources if they do not know what they are [or] where they are.”
Gerig, Potgieter, Ortiz and David are on the ballot for the 2026-27 academic year’s SGA executive board. Voting is open on BroncNation until April 8 at 11:59 p.m.
