Candidates vying to represent the University College Center for Freshman Year in Student Senate met Monday night to discuss issues pertinent to freshman.
Held in the Student Union, the event brought together eight of 17 UCFY Student Senate candidates. The forum comes two days before the upcoming SG elections, to be held Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 9:59 p.m. through students’ PAWS accounts.
All the candidates are members of the UCFY and may only be voted for by students in that college. Available in the UCFY are seven full Senate seats, re-elected annually, and two half Senate seats, re-elected each semester.
Of the eight attending candidates, Brooksie Bonvillain, Kyle Chandler, Broddrick Johnson, Kori Lopreore, Meagan Rogers, Christopher Sellers and Meghan Spell are in the race for the seven available full seats. Phoebe Hathorn was the only candidate vying for the UCFY half seat.
The event was organized by the Freshman Leadership Council, a group headed by SG Assistant Director of Programming Madeline Peters. The nearly 20 audience members included FLC members, SG members and interested freshmen.
One idea that received a positive response was Bonvillain’s suggestion to implement a roommate matching system for incoming freshmen. Audience members and other senators applauded the idea, citing negative potluck assignments.
Chandler opposed roommate matching. He said potluck assignments forced students outside their safety zones and precipitated growth – an integral part of the college experience.
Chandler later suggested mandatory freshman mixers as a method of increasing social interaction between the newly arrived students. Rogers proposed possible freshman retreats, and Lopreore proposed that the STRIPES program be made more affordable. Hathorn maintained that better communication would increase student involvement more than mandatory meetings.
Many candidates stressed the importance of improving communication between students and SG, but views on the best method differed.
Rogers suggested an increase in advertisement to bring together the diverse campus population, whereas Hathorn emphasized the importance of one-on-one communication.
“I think the best way to change the attitude is to get into the student body’s face,” Chandler said. “You have to go ask them, ‘What do you want to change?'”
Nearly all the candidates showed a substantial interest in one thing: ensuring the views of the freshman community get noticed.
“UCFY is, if I’m not mistaken, the biggest college on campus,” said Lopreore. “Unfortunately, the freshman voice is the one that is heard the least.”
——-Contact Daniel McBride at [email protected]