The Student Governance Council (SGC) held its platform presentations at 7 p.m. Sept. 12 for students running for the executive board and senate positions for the 2023–24 academic year. A group of about 10 students gathered in the Taughannock Falls Room to hear from the six candidates.
There are 16 open senator positions for the SGC. Students ran for the Class of 2024 senator, the Class of 2025 senator, the two Class of 2027 senators and the School of Humanities and Sciences senator.
Sophomore Ty Anderson ran for the only open position on the executive board, vice president of Residential Affairs.
Anderson, a physics major from London and an RA, said he wants to provide information for RA’s and residents and build a stronger community and board.
“My goal is to have a nice, transparent community relationship between students and the residence hall association,” Anderson said. “Anything that the residents want should be brought to the board on a regular basis. There’s not enough regular conversation between residents and the board.”
Anderson also said he planned to do research into the past actions of the college’s residence hall association as well as associations at other universities to get a sense of what the association should be working towards.
Senior Molly Hankinson ran for the Class of 2024 senator. Hankinson is a speech-language pathology and audiology major and is currently an RA for first-year students. She said she is very passionate about advocating for the senior class, especially the many seniors who are commuter students.
“I would get feedback about commuter students off-campus because I know that a lot of seniors do live off campus. So just communicating with them about parking and how that is living off campus.” Hankinson said. “I [will] also try and create connections with career services about post-college opportunities for careers and just overall feedback about how we can get Ithaca College to be a better place for the years that are here and the years that are coming.”
Hankinson also said she hopes to make this a great senior year considering that many students in the class of 2024 had their high school senior year cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of them have also only had three years on campus.
Muhammad Arshad ran for the Class of 2025 senator. Arshad, who joined via Zoom, is a business administration major from Pakistan and wants to focus on unifying the student body and being a voice for the class of 2025.
“I believe in the power of unity, ” Arshad said. “Together you can create a stronger, more inclusive and more engaging campus community. “My main role is to listen to people and to raise their voice and to help them as much as I can so they can prosper.”
First-year students Ava Casell-Lapetina and Eva Horst ran for the two Class of 2027 senator seats.
Casell-Lapetina is currently a Leadership Scholar and a member of the varsity tennis team. She said her goal is to build a strong bond within the first-year class by creating and promoting events on campus. Casell-Lapetina also said she is looking to connect students with clubs and organizations.
“I feel like we need to open the lines of communication between first-year students and SGC so they can also be open about what they are feeling and how we can implement their wants and needs,” Casell-Lapetina said.
Horst is an advertising, public relations and marketing communications major with a legal studies minor. She said she hopes to help first-year students with any concerns or questions they may have by being a friendly face that anyone can reach out to.
“Something I want to accomplish is creating resources for first-year students to become acclimated to the college experience easier,” Horst said. “Obviously, moving away from your family and being on your own for the first time, it’s a very big change, and some of us get into it a lot easier than others. So I think just creating a few more resources is going to be really helpful.”
Horst also said she hopes to create channels of communication through social media or conversations for first-year students to voice their concerns.
First-year student Joslyn Forcione ran for the School of Humanities and Sciences senator position. Forcione, who joined via Zoom, is a sociology major and is hoping to create a stronger community within the School of Humanities and Sciences.
“One thing I would like to act on as a senator is talking to professors, advisors and students and seeing what they want out of the program or additional student academic problems,” Forcione said. “I like to create an environment where students feel aware of the resources that they have, and assume that they can advocate for the future as well.”
If all of the candidates are elected, the SGC will still have 12 unfilled positions, including one Class of 2024 senator, one Class of 2026 senator, the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance senator, the first-generation senator, the varsity athlete senator, the off-campus senator, the graduate senator and four senators-at-large positions remain unfilled.
Voting for elections opened on IC Engage on Sept. 13 at midnight and will close Sept. 16 at midnight. Electees will be notified Sept. 18 of the results and new SGC members will have their first senate meeting Sept. 25.
