Oshkosh Student Government (OSG) president and vice president candidates shared their vision for the upcoming general election on April 2-3, with their priorities ranging from transparency, greater communication between OSG and students to reengage students with OSG and student involvement.
In this year’s OSG elections, two candidate pairs are running for the positions, listed in president and vice president order: Matthew Caine and Alex Mulligan and Charlie Colbert and Ira Schlottke.
The candidates said that making a difference and improving student experience on campus were among the reasons that motivated them to run for the elections.
Caine, a third-year student at the university who pursues political science and communications studies, said his previous experience as president of the student government at UW-Fond du Lac and current experience as OSG Food Pantry director prepared him to “improve the student experience at UWO.”
“I am motivated to run for OSG because I believe that I have the necessary institutional historical knowledge as well as a large amount of general knowledge about the processes within the OSG,” he said. “I also believe that the great success of the UWO Food Pantry, which I have taken up this year, shows that I deliver results for students on campus. There was a 420% increase in student usage within the pantry over 2024-25, with much higher amounts of satisfaction shown through qualitative data gathering.”
Colbert, a junior double major in political science and international studies, currently is part of the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity while working at Reeve Memorial Union. His motivation to run comes from the lack of student engagement he sees at Reeve and his party’s passion to improve the campus.
“I remember when Reeve was the heart of this campus,” Colbert said. “Lately, it feels like we’ve lost that spark … It’s time to take OSG out of the office and bring the energy back to the students. We (Colbert and Schlottke) aren’t just names on a ticket, we are a team.”
Mulligan is a first-year Kinesiology student with an emphasis in strength and conditioning at UWO who is also current OSG senator and Student Allocations Committee member. He said that after Caine noticed his hard work and dedication, he became motivated to run alongside him for the OSG elections.
“Matthew and I are building a dynamic that is honest and clear with others,” Mulligan said. “We focus on building trusting and encouraging relations with our peers that pushes us all more to spread knowledge and build communication between student government and to the students on campus.”
Schlottke is also a double major at UWO studying both political science and international studies, while minoring in law and policy with a certificate in indigenous studies. He is also a member of Delta Sigma Phi and is running because of the many issues he sees around campus.
“I am just one person,” Schlottke said. “Every single person on this campus is another pair of eyes that could be finding an issue. This is why I’m running, I want to make sure that every single one of those issues is getting acknowledged and addressed. I want all students on campus to feel like they can make a difference.”
Caine and Mulligan highlighted three main priorities for their campaign: transparency and compliance, policy concerns and advocating for student basic needs and to grow student organizations on campus.
“Students are less involved on our campus now more than any time in the institution’s history,” Caine said. “A sense of belonging comes from having a community that fosters growth of student-led activity through student organizations. With recent work in OSG to revamp policy to make student organizations easier to create and maintain, we are just getting started with becoming a more involved campus.”
Colbert and Schlottke’s top three priorities are transparency, making OSG accessible to the students and repairing student accommodation resources that have been slashed through budget cuts.
“Why care?” Colbert said. “Because, if you don’t have someone in those rooms who actually knows what it’s like to be a student right now, decisions will be made about you, without you.”
For both candidate pairs, Caine and Mulligan and Colbert and Schlottke, accountability in front of students is one of the ways to keep track of their progress.
“We plan to track our progress by setting clear goals in the beginning of each semester that align with (our) priorities and with the student senate,” Caine said. “We will be open to having feedback and criticism from students, executive board members, staff and senators to ensure that we are meeting expectations to our best degree.”
Through 60-second bi-weekly videos supported by a one page graphic, the Colbert and Schlottke party want to bring a different system of accountability by highlighting feedback from students, what they’ve been doing to address feedback received and where they failed.
All of the candidates said that no matter whether they are elected for the office or not, they will continue to bring changes to the campus.
“Winning the election would mean that the campus puts their trust in our ability to better the campus and that they believe in us to be the voice of all students,” Mulligan said. “Losing wouldn’t be the end as I would help better the campus and do what I can as I love the campus and will give up time, energy, and make sacrifices on the betterment of the campus, community and the students.”
“Winning means we can make sure every student’s voice is heard,” Schlottke said. “It means change. It means making a difference for our students, environment, and community… There are so many places I feel like we can help this campus. With that being said, if we lose I will not stop pushing for change on our campus.”
Students can participate in the OSG General Election on April 2 through April 3 by accessing a link that will be delivered through their student email.
