Student Association elections kicked off with a vice presidential debate March 29 between Senator-at-Large Edward Kelly and Funnelle Hall Senator Catherine Millington.
Both candidates are pursuing the position of vice president for SA, which is currently held by Daisie Bancroft. This role includes leading the weekly SA meetings and aiding the president in their duties. The debate, moderated by Assistant Director of Military and Veteran Affairs Rob Davies, commenced with the candidates describing what they would like to accomplish should they win the running.
Kelly, a sophomore, is vice chair of the rules and judiciary committee, a Laker Leader, a Seneca Hall resident assistant, a member of conduct committee and vice president of Impromptu a capella club. Millington, a freshman, is also involved in committees and uses her position of Funnelle Hall senator to communicate to constituents.
“I want to make sure we have underrepresented students on SA,” Kelly said. “What I mean by that is students, such as transfer students and veterans, because they’re not represented right now in our current SA assembly.”
Kelly said he wants to implement online petitions for constituents to easily bring their concerns to Student Association and to push for underrepresented groups to be more included in Student Association,
including nontraditional students. Millington said she would improve relations between student government and Greek life organizations, improving services on campus, and also wants to work in favor of sustainability.
“I want to bridge the gap between SA and Greek life because Greek life has some of the biggest community service programs on this campus, so I really think they need to be recognized for everything they do,” Millington said.
When asked how they would brand Student Association, Millington focused on recruiting more senators, and Kelly opted for advertising for more events and the office hours of senators, both of which would attempt to increase the amount of SA awareness on campus.
“Right now, the attitude within SA is that we reach out to students, but really, it’s mostly on the students to come to us,” Kelly said. “I think we should be doing more of going to the students and taking a more aggressive approach to making sure the students know who we are.”
As for the issues they would hope to work on, Millington listed sustainability, the club sports funding gap and advocating for students, and Kelly stated he would strive for more representation from currently underrepresented groups.
“I believe the role of the vice president should be pushing for change on our campus, but also trying to loop in Greek life and trying to advocate for the Greeks as well and pushing events through social media, not just for SA events, but all organizations on our campus to ensure no organization is left out,” Millington said.
Both agreed the current budget process must be revisited and the criteria needs to be changed because it does not show fairness to every organization. As for bridging the gap between Student Association and the ALANA organizations, Kelly said he would arrange meetings for e-boards in order to make the ALANA organization members feel more at home. Millington said she would work to have a liaison between Student Association and the ALANA organizations to increase their communication.
“Oswego is supposed to be your home away from home,” Kelly said. “We need to make sure students are accepted.”
The final question asked of the candidates regarded their core values and how they would implement them into the position. Millington expressed her wish to make a change and to ensure all students are heard and comfortable coming forward with their opinions and concerns. Kelly said he hopes to make students feel accepted at Oswego and to follow through with making sure there is fairness in all policies that go through Student Association.
“My core values are based on what I’ve seen done on our campus already, and that’s what pushed me to see how we can make a change on our campus,” Millington said. “My biggest value right now is making sure all students are heard, that we are advocating for our students.”
Austin Dearborn | The Oswegonian
