On Wednesday the 20th two of our fellow students, Artem Kolisnychenko and Eva Gallagher, won their respective elections, becoming the Student Senate president and vice president, respectively. Last week, I sat down with all four candidates and asked them about their qualifications, ideas, and why they decided to run. There were numerous recurring themes, like campus food or the visibility of the student senate. While the election is over, most people likely voted without much knowledge of whose name they were actually clicking on. This is by no fault of their own; the more local an election gets, the more difficult it is to find any information about who you\u2019re putting in power. This serves more as information on what the issues are on campus, and who out there wants to bother fixing them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seth Whitman is the tall guy who you’ve probably seen riding a onewheel down the street. Now in his freshman year, he wants to run for student senate president. Seth has five major goals he hopes to achieve if elected. These include holding Ade accountable, acting as a bridge between students and administration, adding electric vehicle chargers to campus, increasing accessibility by adding ramps to more places, and making student senate meetings more fun. Throughout our conversation Seth kept coming back to that second point, acting as a bridge between students and administration. He shared with me that in his time here, he\u2019s met lots of different people from around campus, and I can tell you that, as a fellow political science major, I’ve seen him in action. Seth said he wants to help foster connections between students and administration. He used the issues with Harder Hall this year as an instance of what can be done when that connection is there. Much like the other candidates, Seth was very concerned with food on campus, specifically Ade. He said he was willing to go on record for the Fiat Lux saying \u201cI have a number of people who work at Ade that are noting what is happening that shouldn’t be happening\u201d. Although he would not get into specifics, issues with Ade are at the top of students’ minds. In this conversation, Seth came off as a very goal-oriented person who wants to breathe new life into the student senate with new ideas. Although Seth fell short of securing the presidency this year, I don\u2019t believe this is the last time we\u2019ll be seeing his name on the ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul Bartlet is an Ade worker who, as of writing this, was running for vice president of the student senate. Although his only experience in student government was from his early high school days, he seems to want to get involved for no other reason beyond wanting to be a genuine force for change in the community of Alfred. Some main issues Paul wants to focus on are the student senate\u2019s public perception and the quality of campus food. Spreading the word about the senate’s recent activities via posters and emails were some of his main ideas. Specifically, he wanted to take on a secretarial role during student senate meetings, and then send out his notes as weekly emails to students. Paul hopes to use his insider knowledge of Ade to change the dining hall for the better. Paul shared with me that most of his campaigning took place within the dining hall amongst his co-workers, and from my understanding, it seems like they support his goals as vice president. This year, Paul did not succeed in becoming vice-president, but his interest in improving food on campus is shared with his fellow candidates, and by anyone who pays for a dining plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eva Gallagher has been involved with the student senate since her freshman year and has been the vice president since last year. In her time as finance chair, she oversaw the reworking of finance policies, for instance moving away from funds request forms for clubs and instead giving clubs budgets. Next year, she hopes to not only continue her work on finance but also amend the senate’s constitution. For much of our conversation, Eva spoke excitedly about bringing back committees. Eva explained to me that over the past year, she and the rest of the senate have been working to expand committees, which she believes will bring the enate back to its place as an important institution on campus. Like her fellow candidates, Eva shared her concerns with the state of the student senate; she spoke passionately about how much she wanted the senate to become a place where students can share their concerns and ideas. Although she has been working to make the senate better, she believes the power of true change is dependent on students. No amount of changes to the senate’s constitution can fill the void of a student population who is willing to work for change. On Wednesday, Eva won her election and will be able to continue her time in the student senate, and continue to work towards making a better campus for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Artem Kolisnychenko is a finance major and took over the position of finance chair not too long ago. With this type of resume, it should come as no surprise that much of Artem\u2019s plans revolved around finances. In his current position, he\u2019s run into issues with not having enough money, an issue I’m sure many of us can relate to. He told me about his plans to begin auditing clubs, starting next semester, to make sure they’re following their budgets correctly. I asked Artem if this had been an issue in the past; his response was that this new auditing system would aid in tracking funds and then enabling him to use unspent funds in other places. \u201cIf they said they’re going to spend like ten thousand and they only spend five thousand\u2026 well now we can take that money and maybe give it to people who will spend that money.\u201d Like his fellow candidates, Artem spoke about raising awareness of the student senate and raising the quality of food. Unlike his fellow candidates though, Artem said changing the food system is harder than it looks. Even though it seems difficult, he viewed it as his duty to try and do something. Artem started his time as student senate on a committee; now, at the end of his sophomore year, he\u2019s been elected as president. Artem spoke to a lot of people in person to achieve this; I’m sure many of you were visited by Artem personally. He knocked on every single door on my floor asking people to vote for him. Hopefully, this strategy helped raise awareness about the student senate and encouraged people to follow Artem\u2019s time as president closely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, does any of this even matter? Well, the answer to that question is up to you. Maybe now, after reading this, you wish you could go back and change your vote. I\u2019m sure most of the people who voted couldn\u2019t confidently say why they voted for their candidate. This is part of the issue of the student senate; nobody bothers to look into who they\u2019re voting for. Maybe next year, things will be different, I can’t really say for sure. What I do know, is that if you want to see change, do it yourself. Don\u2019t let your representation be decided by clicking a random bubble on your phone. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday the 20th two of our fellow students, Artem Kolisnychenko and Eva Gallagher, won their respective elections, becoming the Student Senate president and vice president, respectively. Last week, I sat down with all four candidates and asked them about their qualifications, ideas, and why they decided to run. There were numerous recurring themes, like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-wide.php","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"apple_news_channel":"primary","apple_news_api_id_2":"","apple_news_api_created_at_2":"","apple_news_api_modified_at_2":"","apple_news_api_revision_2":"","apple_news_api_share_url_2":"","apple_news_sections_2":[],"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"Written by Cameron Begue, it seems that Student Senate has recently elected their president and vice president.","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[121],"class_list":["post-809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-_newspack_news","category-_newspack_politics","entry"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n