SGA elections bring old, new faces

With the elections for SGA Executive Board beginning this Friday, candidates of the two tickets have been campaigning tirelessly over the past week.

The tickets both feature a mix of individuals, those involved with SGA in the past and also those with no previous experience serving. Juniors Merrill Anovick and Dylan Gorman,  and sophomores Janice Bonsu and Rob D’Annibale comprise one ticket and juniors Alex Schupper, Schaefer Whiteaker and Makesi Paul, and freshman Kyra Toomre the other. Both have made their platforms available through Tumblr, Facebook and a pop-up website. Junior Alex Pressman is running by himself for Vice President.

Though the two tickets were not allowed to begin officially campaigning until Monday, they had been creating their social media platforms previously, which they then released to the public student body at the beginning of this week.

Anovick, who is running for the position of Executive President and previously held the position of Freshmen and Sophomore Class President, was elected Junior Class President in the spring semester last year but could not serve on SGA as he opted to intern off campus for a semester, explained his decision to run for president of the school.

“I’ve been thinking about running for a while now and just needed the right group of people to run with,” he said. “We finalized the this last week and our positions fell into place naturally.”

Schupper, who has gained experience currently serving as Executive Vice President of SGA, has also been involved with many student initiatives, including the Dining Selection Committee, TaxiShare, Sophomore Splash and Nest Fest.

Toomre explained the platform of the ticket.

“Our main initiatives are to increase school spirit, bring more student services to the community and to reconnect the students and the student government,” Toomre said.

With a new dining contract enacted, his ticket also hopes to work with Housing and Dining to create new dining programs and events for students. He also wants to bring in nutritionists to discuss healthy food options for Hopkins busy student body.

“Having a dining vendor that promotes sustainable and healthy living and eating I think is very important for the student body,” Schupper said.

Both Anovick and Whiteaker have stated that they plan to publicize the SGA budget online.

“I want to ensure transparency in the Treasury section,” Whiteaker said.

Gorman, who now serves as a senator for the junior class on SGA, shared some of the changes that Anovick’s ticket plans to implement.

“I would petition to school raise money for the Student Activities Commission since the number of groups Hopkins has increases every year,” he shared. “I also want to make SGA statements publicly available and finally, finance rain ponchos in the library.”

Gorman’s practical advances are accompanied by D’Annibale’s ideas for bettering the school community.

“I would like to improve tailgates and make them more interactive with a beer garden and better food options,” he explained. “Also, we would like to implement exam blackout dates and push back the pass/fail deadline.”

These initiatives would require an efficient and coordinated response from the entirety of SGA, a reality Anovick recognizes and has honed in on.

“Improving function of the committees is top priority,” he said. “SGA is only as functional as its committees and the weakest link defines the whole chain. We need better ideas and communication so that better ideas come to the floor. I think there been a lack of committee accountability.”