Vice President of Programming

Vice President of Programming candidates Victoria Adler, Vinny Simone, and Lauren Enea all had similar platforms for improving relations between Student Programming Board and Student Government Association, but focused on different ways of improving SPB to do so.

Adler proposed utilizing Collegiate Link and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to promote student events on campus for both organizations. She cited three parts of an organization that are key to success: the program, the promotions, and the members.

“It is important not to measure the success of these programs by the number of people in attendance, but by the investment of the members who put into the quality of these events,” Adler said.

Vinny Simone proposed creating an Athletics chair in SPB to encourage enthusiasm and build a working relationship between the two.

“My ultimate goal for this relationship with Athletics is to raise school spirit across campus,” he said.

Enea highlighted student input as something to be valued in SPB.

“I feel that a key point as to why a lot of students don’t get involved in SGA or SPB is that they don’t realize that what they say will count,” Enea said. “They feel that the way the organizations work is from the top down, but instead they really work from the bottom up. As more people become involved in the organizations and tell others what they want, the more their voice is heard.”

Enea stressed being a utility for other student organizations and getting their voices heard as well.

Vice President of Finance

Vice President of Finance candidates Eric Cote and Saba Shahid have somewhat similar platforms, but stress different ways to make the finance committee more effective.

While Shahid is more focused on working with other student organizations and promoting campus events, Cote is more focused on how the money allocated to student groups is being spent.

“Right now with finance everything is on paper and it doesn’t have to be,” Cote said. “It can easily go on Collegiate Link–reimbursements can happen a lot faster and that’s really important because people are putting sometimes thousands of dollars on their credit cards and they aren’t getting reimbursed for a month, and I think we can improve that.”

Shahid wants to utilize special appeals so that student organizations who need extra money can work with the Finance Committee to improve their organizations.
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“The most important thing that I think this position entitles is out of all executive board positions, this position is the door to all the other students organizations on campus,” she said.

Both sophomores, Cote is a finance major, while Shahid is a biomedical science major.

Cote argued that his major helps him not only when it comes to working with numbers, but also gives him more free time for this position.

“My finance major gives me more free time, and that’s a fact,” Cote said.

Shahid said that being a health science major would not pose a problem, and her experience would more than suffice.

“I think what matters with this position is experience, and that I can tell you I have,” she said.

Both candidates claimed they aren’t seeking this position to build their résumé, but because they are passionate about improving SGA.

“At the end of the day I don’t want it for the résumé, I don’t want it for the office; I want it because I want to see SGA grow and I want to see SGA improve and I want to serve the students,” Cote said.

Lovett, Bond run unopposed

Vice President of Public Relations candidate Kaite Lovett and Vice President of Student Concerns candidate Vincent Bond will run unopposed in today’s election.

Bond, the current vice president of programming, decided to switch his focus to student concerns after working closely with Ben Wald and Nick Rossetti on the student government side “coming up with creative solutions.”

“My biggest goal as a programmer going into SAC is that students are safe, having great experiences, we’re continuing to do programs for them and they’re getting the best four years that they have here,” Bond said.

Lovett looks to change the image SGA has.

“People really don’t know what we do because no one really comes to the meetings …

getting what we do out there through different media and talking to them saying ‘we are here for you, come utilize us,’ and I don’t want it just to be SGA using us,” Lovett said.

Lovett ran for the same position last year.

Photo credit: Ilya Spektor