Freshman class election results for the Student Government Association (SGA) were released on Tuesday. For the 2017-2018 academic year, the Freshman Class President is Sam Schatmeyer and the Freshman Class Senators are Evan Mays, Matt Taj, Coco Cai, Aspen Williams, Lauren Paulet and Nico Daurio.
The freshman class elections drew an increase in voter turnout, with 59 percent of the Class of 2021 voting compared to 57 percent of the Class of 2020.
Schatmeyer said that he decided to run for president in order to give back to the Hopkins community.
“[Hopkins] had already given me so much in terms of friendships and new experiences, new perspectives,” he said. “I’m going to work my damndest to make sure I give as much to this class as I can for however long I’m blessed to be president.”
Schatmeyer was class president for four years at his high school and plans to use that experience in his role as class president at Hopkins. He and the other candidates on his ticket, A Campaign for Inclusivity (CFI), plan to support a positive, diverse atmosphere on campus.
“We wanted to do that through funding different clubs and organizations,” Schatmeyer said. “We wanted to do general programming events that brought the Class of 2021 together.”
Paulet, Daurio and Mays were also on the CFI ticket. Paulet said that her passion for policy and desire to make an impact on the student body motivated her to run for SGA senator.
“I felt like I wanted to... leave a legacy at JHU and basically leave the position better off than I picked it up... not just for me but for the entire student body,” she said.
She believes the administration should do more to recognize students of different backgrounds and plans to start initiatives to increase diversity on campus. Paulet described CFI’s core values and goals and said that the ticket grew out of a political activism group chat for the Class of 2021.
“We wanted to really bridge our students together through our diversity and embrace different viewpoints on political issues,” Paulet said.
Daurio expressed his desire to bring together the student body. He wrote in an email to The News-Letter that he plans to focus on environmental sustainability.
Mays wrote in an email to The News-Letter that he hopes to use his position in SGA to learn more about his fellow students, particularly by organizing bonding activities for freshmen.
“Our class is one of the most diverse classes yet. I see a great opportunity for us to all learn from each other and grow together,” he wrote.
Taj stressed a need for greater interaction between students and faculty.
“Offering things like events that would bring teachers out of their areas and into the students’ comfort zones would [be] a huge help for both students and faculty,” he said.
Cai plans to focus on improving school spirit and mental health. She wrote in an email to The News-Letter that she hopes to create change and support her fellow students.
“As someone who’s never done student government before, running for SGA at Hopkins was a completely new experience for me,” she wrote. “It is such an amazing opportunity to represent the student body and make changes around the campus.”
Williams, who decided to run for SGA in order to become more involved at Hopkins, said that she is interested in helping the freshman class build stronger connections with the Baltimore community.
“As people who are in a position of privilege, we should be doing what we can to help those around us,” she said.
Schatmeyer agreed with Williams and believes that SGA has a responsibility to contribute to the Baltimore community.
“That community has given us a lot, certainly,” he said. “As president here it’s important to give back.”
Paulet echoed Schatmeyer’s sentiment and emphasized the need for increased interactions between the University and the City.
“There is a certain level of inequality that lies outside of our little Hopkins bubble, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t go out there and try to make a difference,” she said.
As part of the election process, candidates were required to obtain 200 signatures from freshmen. Taj enjoyed the process as a way to meet new people and interact with his fellow students.
“It’s really not that big of a deal,” he said. “It’s very simple because the students here, especially during orientation... they’re really sociable and they want to talk to more people, so it’s very easy to communicate with the voter base.”
Paulet disagreed, stating that she found the required candidate petition forms made it difficult to connect individually with students.
“The point isn’t really to promote myself,” she said. “I didn’t feel that the other candidates were really making an effort to really sit down and discuss the issues with the students.”
Schatmeyer enjoyed the election process and is grateful for the opportunity to serve as class president.
“A big thank you to the Class of 2021,” he said. “I’m really excited and honored that they elected me to lead them for this year.”
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