Student Union

There's no "I" in Senate, but the most important part of SU is you.  The Student Union Senate should reflect your concerns and interests, and if elected, I will focus on facilitating dialogue instead of creating it.  This is the fastest and most effective way to create the change and improvements that will enhance the experiences of all students on campus.  I will make every effort to bring the ideas of students to SU, rather than bringing the ideas of SU to students.

My name is Dan Robinson, and I’m a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Political Science.  As a senator, I will strive to listen, learn, andadvocate for what you want.  I would love the chance to represent the interests of my peers and would appreciate your vote on November 4th and 5th. 

Please feel free to contact me with any questions, ideas, and suggestions.

Email: danielrobinson@wustl.edu

Facebook: www.facebook.com/danjrobinson

     My name is Michael Post and I am a junior in Arts and Sciences.  I have had the honor of representing the student body since the spring of my freshman year and am running for reelection so that I may continue to do so. My time in Senate has been very productive with my focus being on building community through school spirit. I spear headed initiatives to increase dialogue about what school spirit means on our campus and to bring tailgating onto campus.  I am currently working with Lock and Chain to build new traditions around George Washington Week.   Through constituency emails, dorm-storming, and my liasonship to Greek Life, I feel I’ve done a lot to keep my 250 constituents in the loop. Still, I want to look for new, innovative ways to reach out to my constituency and inform the student body that they have somewhere to go when they have issues on campus.

            My name is Ross Passo and I am running for Student Union Senate as a representative of Arts and Sciences. Let me make this brief: I want to be your senator because Student Union needs a bold, common-sense voice. From what I’ve seen (having attended two senate meetings and serving on the Campus Service Committee), senate is an organization that needs an outsider; someone who can look at the problems objectively, and act accordingly. My primary goal is to assess the effectivity and efficiency of senate, and work to take measures to improve the current situation. So to provoke change in an group desperate for some, please give me your vote, because a strong student body deserves a strong student government. To view my full platform, please join my Facebook group “Ross Passo for ArtSci Senate.” 

I recently got the chance to serve on the tobacco initiative committee. Through this experience, I’ve gotten to work with campus administrators, faculty, and other students—but most importantly, I learned that I’m willing to honestly represent the concerns of the student body in a persuasive manner.

I see in an open senate seat the opportunity to strengthen the ties between the engineering school and student union. I’m running for this seat not only to get involved in student advocacy, but also to improve the degree of engineering-specific input to SU. I hope to do this by working more closely with engineering organizations, including Encouncil, NSBE, and SWE.

My role as an officer in a Greek organization, my experiences with small group leadership in student organizations, classes, and habitat for humanity, and my connections with the engineering community will allow me to play an active part in Student Union Senate by representing my fellow engineers.

Thank you for your time, and be sure to vote on November 4^th and 5^th!

Patrick Kelly

Biomedical Engineering

Class of 2011

Hi, my name is Kelsey Eng and I am running for the available Art Senator seat. This fall, I am the current Art Senator, and so far, I have enjoyed the experience immensely. Why am I running? I am passionate about being part of the lively and creative community that is the Sam Fox School of Art, and I want to continue to bring that enthusiasm to Senate. Being part of Senate has allowed me to help share the opinions of art students in a mainstream forum and get involved in student affairs that are not limited to the art school.

Art Senators have a great chance to proudly represent their school since there are only two of them. However, they also must not be afraid of speaking their minds since there are only two Art Senators out of twenty six total senators – that’s 1/13 of the total Senate. I feel that being one of the fall seat Art Senators has helped me realize what I want to achieve in Senate and how best to go about it. I have also had a chance to work closely with the other Art Senator, and am continuing to work with her on current projects. Supporting the projects of other senators is also another part of having a seat of senate. Not only does this foster relations between the schools, but it has given me an opportunity to learn more about how Washington University in St. Louis as a whole functions. While this may be my first involvement in student government, already, I have learned a great deal.

As a freshman in Senate, I have realized that enthusiasm and persistence goes a long way. The biggest goal that I have this year is to get student artwork exhibited in student eateries. What better place to look at artwork on a daily basis? Currently, I am working with the other Art School Senator to form a DUC art committee and another art committee concerned with eateries on the South Forty, but which could also potentially include the Village. Looking at the Art School specifically, I have worked towards improving the Steinberg Café. I worked with Patti Louvier and Bobbe Winters to install a microwave in the Café, and also with Nadeem Siddiqui to extend the Café hours from 8am to 7:45am. Also, with sophomore Anna Roseberry, I hope to improve the format of the freshmen peer advisory program.  Getting artwork into the residential dorms is another issue I am looking forward to approach this year – this would also involve working with the Photography club, since they are also interested in achieving the same goal.

If elected, I will continue to be an active member of the Senate and of the Sam Fox community. I will continue to send out informative constituent emails, and represent the Art School to the best of my abilities. I will make sure that I will always be available to new ideas, opinions, and thoughts. If you have any questions, feel free to email kelseye@samfox.wustl.edu. Thanks for your support!

Hey, everyone!                   

My name is Mamatha Challa, and I'm currently a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences. As you may or may not know, a Student Union ArtSci Fall Senate seat opened up during the summer, leaving a vacancy that needed to be filled until this November. After going through application process, I was lucky enough to get the incredible opportunity to serve in this position.

Now, as the term for this seat is ending, and I am running to continue serving as a SU Senator. This statement outlines my experience, ideas, and goals for the upcoming term.

EXPERIENCE

WashU:

In my last few months as a Senator, I have actively participated during Senate meetings, on the University Initiatives (UI) Committee, in the events of Senate Outreach Week, on Elections Committee, and on WU/FUSED. Specifically, on UI, I have been heading a new project that I will be discussing more in the “Ideas” section. All of this work has given me a strong understanding of the structure and operations of Student Union. Additionally, in August, I participated in the “Leading WashU Style” Pre-Orientation, which gave me a good understanding of the kind of staff and resources on-campus.

High school (IMSA):  

Like many people on this campus, I served as Student Council President during my senior year of high school. However, unlike many high school student governments, my residential high school’s actually spent a large majority of its time working on advocating student needs and wants to the school’s fairly open-minded administration. The experience of running IMSA StudCo was absolutely invaluable, and it taught me how to collaborate with administrators and other passionate students to improve policies in areas such as academics, residential life, and general campus rules.

IDEAS

WashU Bike Share:

For the last few months, I have actively been leading a project on the University Initiatives Committee to implement a University-recognized “Bike Share” program on campus. A WashU Bike Share system would allow community members to have shared access to a certain set of bicycles that could be used as a form of one-way transportation for traveling short distances across campus. Our committee has gotten a fair amount of research done, and we are now in the stages of talking to the WashU administration about our ideas. Considering the fact that the University already has new plans to build bike-friendly pathways and generally make WashU a bike-friendly campus, I believe that this is the perfect opportunity for us to continue working hard to implement such a program. A bike sharing system would be incredibly convenient for the students, help reduce bicycle congestion on campus, and in general promote a healthy and environmentally friendly activity.

Internal Operations:

Although I’ve only spent a few months on Senate, I’ve thought of some ways that we can improve the way we work. One of the ways we can improve the internal operations of Senate is by improving the way we communicate with students who provide us with input. As of right now, most of the suggestions that we receive from students are either communicated to Senate by individual senators, or given to Senate during Senate Outreach Week. Considering all of this, I think our system is definitely open to student input. However, I think what we need to improve on is how we communicate back to the students that provide us with ideas. My proposal would be to have some sort of follow-up form that we send back to students who give us input, to let them know that their suggestions have been discussed and exactly how they are being addressed.

CONCLUSION

In the end, I believe that I am a strong candidate for this Senate position because I would provide a unique balance between my extensive experience with policy work in highschool, the few months of experience that I’ve already gained as an SU senator, and my freshman perspective of WashU and SU. Outside of that, in general, I would consider myself a fun-loving, passionate, and hard-working person. I love people, and I think I’m pretty approachable (definitely a little goofy, at the least). Once I commit myself to something, I don’t let it go, and I do my best to make things the best they can be. If you honor me with your vote, I can assure you that I will continue working my absolute hardest for SU.

Feel free to contact me at mchalla@wustl.edu if you have any more questions or ideas! J

Thanks!

-Mamatha

For all those who plan to run for a Fall Senate seat, the mandatory Candidate's Meeting will be in DUC 234 from 7 - 9 pm. If you wish to learn more about SU Senate Elections, please go to su.wustl.edu/elections and download the election packet.

Thank You,

Colin Towery and Kayla-Joyce Brinkley

SU Election Commissioners

Fall Senate Election Packets are now available online and will be available in print in the SU Office on Sunday.

Packets are due Monday, October 26th. Elections are November 4-5.

Click on the image thumbnail to view the full election results.