After conducting 15-minute interviews with all of the candidates, consulting the platforms that they submitted to the Daily Campus, and listening to the Student Body Officer debates, the Editorial Board of the Daily Campus has chosen to endorse Austin Prentice for Student Body President, Alex Ehmke for Student Body Vice President and Martha Pool for Student Body Secretary.
All of the candidates showed formidable potential and creative ideas that would positively contribute to the student body of SMU.
We would like to commend Katie Perkins’ dedication and hard work as Student Body Secretary this semester. She has tirelessly endeavored to increase communication between Student Senate and the student body throughout her entire tenure in senate.
Sam Mansfield’s innovative perspective brought up good ideas that had often not been considered. His contributions are insightful and applicable.
For attaining perfection in his knowledge of the rules of order and the juridical standing of Senate and its committees, Joseph Esau deserves recognition. He has sharpened and made Senate a more professional organization by his efforts.
Roza Essaw’s perseverance in perceiving and achieving the requests and needs of SMU students is admirable. Toward this end, she is limited by neither the traditional means of achievement, nor by a negative response.
However, Austin Prentice had the most practical and direct platform, a commanding presence and articulate presentation, and legitimate and useful experience after having served a year as Student Body Vice President. His macro-level plan to improve the “quality of life experience” for the student body encompasses the necessary micro-level details. Platform goals that appealed to the Editorial Board are his efforts to reduce fees for graduation, along with more catered and specific parking passes. He has both legislation on which he had already begun to work on, and innovative ideas for the upcoming academic year.
Similarly, Alex Ehmke has approached this election with maturity and eloquence. He has worked to forge relationships with administrators to further the interests of the student body. He speaks with positive and negative experiences from his three years of active membership in Senate. The platform he proposes has concrete goals that, while idealistic, have potential. The Editorial Board supports his proposal to recommend a more representative appeals process for Park ‘N Pony. We believe his goals to require earlier publication of syllabi and institutionalize the permission to use laptops in the classroom will be challenging, but they are worthwhile endeavors.
Martha Pool, despite running uncontested, is a strong candidate. As a freshman she has identified pockets of misrepresentation and actively responded. She has addressed the needs of veterans on campus, a demographic that has previously been unconsidered. She began the Town Hall meetings after taking leadership of the Student Concerns committee. This position was last-minute and polemic, but she made the best of the appointment. Her organization and creative ideas will benefit the student body and senate.
The Daily Campus wishes all of the candidates the best of luck and encourages the student body to exercise its right to vote for its senators and student body officers.
Editor’s Note: It should be noted that both Meredith Shamburger and Jessica Huseman recused themselves from this Editorial Board. They were neither involved in the interviews, nor in the determination of the endorsements.
