SMC meets candidates for class councils, diversity board
By Nicole Haddad
Members of the Saint Mary's community were given the opportunity to meet each class's presidential candidates as well as candidates for the Diversity Board during the Meet the Candidates session Monday.
Before opening the floor to questions from students, candidates answered questions generated by the Board of Governance
Diversity Board
Monday night's session started with the candidates for the Student Diversity Board, which was approved by the Board of Governance two weeks ago.
This will be the diversity board's inaugural election.
"Not everyone who attends Saint Mary's is Catholic … working with campus ministry we hope to work with people and make more people feel at home," said Jessica Delgado, who is running for vice-president of the board with Akmaral Omarova. Omarova and Delgado also expanded on their ideas for social and cultural events.
"[We want to] try to bring in more diversity in terms of intellectual speakers on campus, we need to get more people here to educate us. For example, [we want to] bring in someone who will teach us to African dance, something that will educate us and be fun [at the same time]," said Omarova.
Nikki Gonzalez and Andrea Romero, also running together for the diversity board, said they want to increase the number of multicultural students on campus. They proposed having multicultural students on campus make recruiting calls to prospective multicultural students to encourage them to come to Saint Mary's.
The third pair of candidates running for the Diversity Board is Katie Poynter and Julie Frischkorn. The first issue they discussed was the anti-discrimination clause in their platform.
"There first needs to be a way to spread the word that [a anti-discrimination clause] does not exist ... . We want people to know Saint Mary's is a diverse campus," said Frischkorn.
"If all of us do our jobs effectively, the diversity will come to us," said Poynterand.
All six candidates also offered their own definitions of diversity.
"Diversity to me is a lot of everything that makes up something. Each of us makes up Saint Mary's. We hold a significant part to each other," said Delgado.
Class of 2001
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Only one ticket, led by presidential hopeful Autumn Palacz, is running for the class of 2001's class council. That ticket's ideas are to create a senior class mural in the tunnel system, to generate creative fundraising activities to reduce the cost of the Senior Formal and to increase student involvement in community service.
"We need to leave an impression of our experience," said Alyson Leatherman, who is running for treasurer. Some of their significant contributions to their class this year have been the monthly service events, including the AIDS walk.
"This gives juniors the opportunity to reach out to the community," said Julia Malczynski, the vice-presidential candidate.
Class of 2002
Candidates for the class of 2002's council had the opportunity to explain specific of their respective.
Presidential candidate Katy Robinson spoke of her ticket's proposed support group.
"[The group would act] as a youth group that reaches out to the class and lets the people know that there are others who want to listen to you. It's a way for the class to interact," Robinson said.
Presidential candidate Abeer Zayed suggested a trip to Windsor, but emphasized that the trip would not promote underage drinking.
"It's not a traditional activity, rather a way to show students a new culture," said one of Zayed's runningmates, vice-presidential candidate Kristen Wojtas.
Presidential candidate Erin Callahan and her runningmates suggested a Big Sister/Little Sister program.
"This would be implemented with children in the community allowing students to devise groups to take on a child and sponsor activities," Callahan said.
Another ticket, led by presidential candidate Katy Robinson, suggested a Woman's Survival Day with the motto "Teaching women everything they're not supposed to know." Topics would include self-defense and changing a tire.
"We want to celebrate our women's college and recognize that we are in a vacuum," said Mandy Schomas, running for secretary on the Robinson ticket.
The class of 2002 tickets agreed that communication was very important.
"We all have different interests, and through the different departments, we ignite change through communication," Wojtas said
Class of 2003
Meet the Candidates continued with the candidates running for the Class of 2003's class council answering questions about their platforms.
Presidential candidate Stephanie Pace said that her ticket's experience gives it an edge over its opponents.
"We know the people, we know how to run the board. I think our experience from this year will help us next year and the years to come. The knowledge we have this year from working on the board will help our class take a step forward," said Alison Joseph, running for vice president with Pace.
Presidential candidate Kristen Matha said her ticket's strength rested in its diversity. Matha would like to implement the Sober Sisters program, increase attendance at the sporting events and start a sophomore spirit club and spirit week.
Presidential candidate Katie Vincer, however, discussed her ticket's ideas of having a class trip, T-shirt and lock-in.
"Within this lock-in we will bring different bands in and have basketball games. Pretty much just to bring the class together," said Vincer. "It's time for a change. It's time to become part of a class. We're ready to move on."
The forth ticket, led by presidential candidate Jen Hackbush, would also like to implement a sophomore class lock-in next year. However, the ticket would like the event to benefit a charity. The ticket would also like to have open board meetings and a more informative class newsletter, with its main objective being to bring the board closer to the Class of 2003.
"We can come in with a better out look, we saw what went wrong and right this year," said Hackbush.
All candidates agreed that class unity was one of the most important issues this year.
"We should encourage students to join in activities planned by the board," Karen Higley, who is running for treasurer with Hackbush.
Matha and her runningmates — Kim Jensen, Kristie Maurer and Molly O'Shea — agreed.
"We can't turn away from others' ideas," said Jensen, the ticket's vice-presidential candidate.
The tickets also agreed that leadership was an important part of building community.
"I wanted to run and get involved. As a member of BOG, I was able to listen to the class," said Pace.
"Leadership is important," Hackbush said.
All News Stories for Tuesday, February 22, 2000
