This year’s student body officers ran their campaigns on injecting life back into the university.
And for the most part, they succeeded. They brought condoms to campus, extended Food Services’ hours, fought for MAP Grants, sparked plans for wireless Internet expansion and initiated a new recycling plan. That’s a lot more than most administrations accomplish.
And that’s also why the new student body officers have big shoes to fill.
However, it’s important they not just fill these shoes by carrying out on what this year’s officers have started. While issues such as recycling and Internet still need following up next year, the officers need to make sure they’re keeping up with new student concerns and finding innovative ways to address them.
The student body made the right choice when it re-elected Tricia Anklan. Not only will she be better able to lead the senate at the start of next year, but she’ll be able to ensure follow up on resolutions she helped write and help shepherd the new SBOs though their first few weeks.
President-elect Nick Swiatkowski has served as a committee chairperson for Student Senate, but the other two have only served as senators.
Our hope for these new leaders is that they can quickly adjust to holding four of the most important positions on campus.
This group is coming into office while a stream of accomplishments is already moving. It’s easier to keep momentum going than stopping and starting again.
We’re especially excited to see if Treasurer-elect Andrew Kerr will give wings to his plan to start a not-for-profit alternative to the Bradley bookstore. This would not only save students money, but possibly create funds that’s use would directly flow back to the students. He had big things to say in his endorsement interview, and we fully expect him to follow through.
However, besides Anklan, the other candidates’ goals for next year seemed less clear.
So help them out.
If you think something needs to be changed, talk to them – attend a Student Senate meeting, become a senator or address a concern via e-mail. We’re also hoping set office hours for senators, a topic three of the four winning officers campaigned on, are established.
It’s the students’ job to hold them accountable for being our connection to the administration.
We have high hopes for next year’s student body officers, and you should have the same.
It was only a year ago that we were skeptical about this year’s young student body officers. But they proved themselves in ways that will affect Bradley students for years to come.
There’s a lot of great things happening on campus, but there’s also a long way to go.
Let’s keep the lifeblood flowing.
