Two Student Government Association Class of 2011 representative spots were filled by Peter Longo and Aris Mantopoulos last Wednesday at SGA’s general meeting. The spots were previously empty since two resignations last year.
During the meeting, Longo and Mantopoulos each gave their three-minute introduction, had five minutes for a question-and-answer segment and made their two-minute closing remarks to the group.
“I’ve had an exciting and successful four years here,” Longo said. “But I didn’t get involved too much with structured activities. When I saw the spot, I just really wanted the opportunity to get into the organization. I want to do something to give back now.”
Longo had been interested in joining Student Government Association since freshman year, but it was not until he saw an e-mail this year, letting him know of an empty spot, that he decided to join.
“Peter will be a very good fit on the board of SGA. He has tremendous vision and is a very creative person, and with his creativeness and vision I think that he can contribute a lot to not only SGA but to Quinnipiac,” senior Sean Coughlin said.
Longo, a marketing major, and Mantopoulos, a management major, met freshman year when they both lived on the second floor of Irma East Side and have stayed friends since.
Mantopoulos, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, has served as president of Quinnipiac’s Hellenic Society, worked in the Office of Multicultural Affairs and Residential Life, and has been a Resident Assistant for three years.
“I have a broader, more diverse background than some SGA members because of my experience in Res. Life,” Mantopoulos said. “I have a lot of resources at my disposal. I’m looking to collaborate as much as possible because the more resources you have, the better the end result will be, whether it’s programming or getting feedback.”
Mantopoulos is in the process of applying to college administration graduate programs and hopes this experience brings him a different perspective on how colleges work that will be useful in his future career.
“Because of living at Westview with juniors and seniors, I know the needs of the students,” Mantopoulos said. “Walking to the parking garage every day, eating the same food, using the shuttle system and using the same facilities–they sound trivial, but they’re important because it really puts me in their shoes. It’s easy for me to represent the senior class and I know what they want. I’ll be a voice for them.”
Mantopoulos and Longo had to obtain endorsing signatures from 181 seniors (approximately 15 percent of their class), write a 100-word personal statement and get two stamps of approval: one from Student Affairs to confirm there were no behavior problems, and one from the Registrar to verify their grade point averages were high enough to qualify.
