Students elect new leadership
Elections for Student Senate took place April 18-19, when the student body elected its top two executive officers. The student body elected James Bahensky, 22, senior of Anselmo, president and T.J. Thomson, 21, junior of Golden, Colo., vice president.
In an effort to increase the student body awareness of Senate’s contributions to the campus and to find out what plans the new executives have for the fall, The Eagle interviewed the newly elected duo.
Q: Are you starting right away with any major tasks or are you easing into office?
THOMSON: I had the benefit of James as my running mate, since he’s already been in this position, with all of his experience and wisdom. One of the things that I want to do over the summer is try to get some identity branding standards in place for the Student Senate.
BAHENSKY: T.J. and I talked before elections about our platform and something we need to get going is the point-of-sale system. There are a lot of commuters and they don’t want the meal plan because when are they going to use it? We also want to keep working on the library. That was something Morgan really wanted to push and you can’t let those kinds of things fail. (Senate contributed funds to the library renovations under the previous Senate president, Morgan Nelson.) Part of our job is being the communicators between the students and the administration, knowing what’s going on and being able to tell people about it.
THOMSON: Another item on our platform was the evaluation of online courses because of feedback from campus. There have been some mixed feelings about online courses and their effectiveness.
BAHENSKY: Also, continuing to work with the new administration. Dr. Rhine has been great to work with as a VP, and whoever fills his shoes will have big shoes to fill, but I’m sure they will.
Q: Looking at a previous issue of the Eagle (Man on the Street), there were four people interviewed on what they thought about CSC Student Government. Some of the people interviewed said that they were not aware that there was a Student Senate or what it was that Senate did for the campus. How do you plan to address this issue?
BAHENSKY: I believe the four people you’re talking about were Frank Wolff, Abby Gibson, Eric Trumbell, and Abbie Marti who are all freshmen and sophomores. Eric Trumbell, I think he came to Senate finance committee hearings. I didn’t get the best impression from him about anything that we have done.
So maybe talk to him personally and see what his issues are with Senate. I believe he called us “crappy,” and said that we “don’t do anything.” So maybe try to change that opinion. Perhaps we’re not getting our voice out there enough. Perhaps they did not know that we were a big part of the “Tradition Never Graduates” theme and t-shirts (for Homecoming).
I don’t think a lot of people know that Senate sponsors the bed sheet competition. I don’t think that a lot of people know what it is that we do because a lot of it is behind the scenes.
THOMSON: James is right; a lot of the things that we do are behind the scenes. Currently, Student Senate representation is set up based on academic schools. What we have changed, and what was just voted on in the last election, is that we would integrate Residence Life halls into that representation. Now you’re going to have people from each of the academic schools, plus people from all of the dorms. We hope this will get collaboration and ideas.
Q: You said that you were working on identity branding (logos, stationary) for advertisement and recognition. Is that more specifically so that students know when senate is involved in the different activities?
BAHENSKY: Yes. And I don’t know if you know this, but we do encourage people to come to the Senate meetings. We’ve never changed the time or place for the meetings unless there is a conflict with Conferencing. (Senate meetings are at 5 p.m., Mondays in the Scottsbluff room in the Student Center.)
Q: You had talked earlier about some goals and tasks that you have for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year. Were there any other goals that you have for next year?
THOMSON: I think being the representative body of the student population is great. We want to know what students are thinking so that we can help get their thoughts into action. Also, we want to give back and have a bigger service presence on campus.