News-Letter

Media Credit: Laura Bitner [Click to enlarge]

The Student Council executive elections last weekend saw less than half of the student participation of last year, as campaigning was largely quiet and only one of the positions was contested.The Student Council board for the coming year will include President Scott Bierbryer `08, Treasurer Austin Nelson `09, Secretary Tim Miller `10, Vice President for Student Life Justine Mink `09, and Vice President for Entertainment Andrew Gerba `08.The position of President was the only contested election, and Miller won his position as a write-in candidate with 86 votes. Jeremy Batoff, chair of the Committee on Student Elections (CSE), attributed the low turnout to the fact that four of the five candidates ran unopposed. "If you account for the fact that only one position was contested, people just didn't feel the need to vote. Except for the position of President, their vote didn't matter," Batoff said. He also suggested that the lack of student interest in running for positions was indicative of a larger issue of apathy within the university.

"This instance reflects a larger issue within the student body -- they do a great job voicing their opinions to each other, but they need to improve with regard to working with the administration and taking direct action," Batoff said.

Bierbryer, the former Student Activities Commission (SAC) chair and incoming StuCo president, says he intends to address issues ranging from StuCo legitimacy and accessibility to event funding. Increasing accessibility, he says, includes creating a functional and up-to-date Web site and also by creating regular office hours during which anyone can meet with StuCo representatives at their office in the Mattin Center. Bierbryer also stresses the importance of Student Council in influencing university policy. StuCo recently endorsed an initiative by the Hopkins Energy Action Team (HEAT) to prompt the University to pursue a "Responsible Energy Policy." "It is not our job to decide what is best, but we must make sure that important issues are heard by the administration and should push for a student referendum if the issue is large enough," he said. He stressed the importance of direct and active contact between StuCo and other student groups."I hope that we can gain more contact with groups so we can stress our desire to support the views of the student body and create a sense of legitimacy in gaining a StuCo endorsement," Bierbryer said. Students have shown some concern about the fact that four-fifths of the board will consist of members of the same fraternity, but Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell is not concerned. "I have never felt that members of a group have a single agenda and I think each of these individuals will approach the job from his own perspective," she said.Gerba, at least, thinks that being a fraternity brother will help him do a better job as Vice President for Entertainment. He wants to use his experiences in the Greek scene to improve the quality and variety of entertainment on campus. "Utilize what you have -- this is the situation that I'm in and I want to utilize it," Gerba said. He wants to help fraternities and sororities provide more campus-wide entertainment, since they have their own individual funding."There is no reason that affiliation with any one group should cause some type of concern, rather than open up the potential for something good to happen," Gerba said. Gerba understands that many students believe Student Council seems to get little accomplished, and he attributes it in part to the Executive Board. He says he has a number of goals, but abstained from mentioning them all for fear of disappointing students in the future. Aside from just working to get Greek organizations on campus to work with Student Council, he also wants to work to get the Hopkins Organization for Programming (HOP) more involved. "They have a lot of strong ideas, but a lot of them never get off the ground ... we'll just see what the administration will allow us to do," he said. Ideally, Gerba would have the student body realize that "school isn't all about sitting in the library and studying -- there's more to it than that."Miller, the freshman write-in candidate for Secretary and three-time high school class president, hopes that he represents a part of the student body that is not always included in the Executive Board. "Many ideas have been said, but have not been heard ... I believe that this is my opportunity to take action and help Hopkins become a better place for everyone," Miller said.As Vice President for Student Life, Mink's goal is to "act as the voice of the students," communicating with the administration to make their decisions more accessible to the students. "I hope to be able to make the Student Council more publicly involved in the day-to-day issues of the students," she said. Mink also thinks that students are generally unaware of StuCo's accomplishments. "I hope to change that," she said. Mink does not think that she will have any difficulty having her voice heard, even though she is the only female on the board and the only one who is not a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. "We were all elected to represent the entire student body so regardless of whatever other groups, activities, interests, or organizations we belong to, our job is to serve [the students]," she said. As Treasurer, Nelson's most important responsibility will be working with the SAC to appropriate funding for student groups. He believes that his job will be simple next year given the changes that were made under the watch of Bierbryer.

One of the problems that he intends to fix is related to the spending caps placed on certain budgets by the administration. The $2,000 limit on transportation budget, for example, acts as an extreme hindrance for student groups. He hopes to resolve the problem without amending the Student Council constitution.

Article Tools