Evelyn Pechous & Kasey Marquardt

As current members of Hamline Undergraduate Student Congress, we have come to appreciate the opportunity to be a voice for students. During our time as members of HUSC, we have served on the Academic Action Committee and Technology task force, been involved in the discussion of the Hamline demolitions, and worked on capital improvements such as game room and fitness center updates. As president and vice president of Hamline Undergraduate Student Congress, we will strive to bridge the gap between administration and students; collaborate with students, organizations, faculty, staff and administration to best meet the needs of students, designate a weekly forum for organizations to voice their questions, comments, or concerns to HUSC, and actively seek out changes and improvements voiced by students by holding longer office hours and actively seeking the suggestions of all students. Some specific projects we would like to work on include permanently extending library hours, providing more philanthropy opportunities, creating a designated space on campus for commuters, and working to reduce printing costs. We have noticed that some things currently being implemented in HUSC that work well and that we would like to continue doing, such as providing student organizations a time each week to promote their organization in the HUSC General Assembly, providing incentives to attend HUSC meetings, and continuing to promote important conversations surround social justice. As your student congress president and vice president, we will continue to create change that benefits all students.

Gino Terrell & Shelby St. Pierre

We, Gino Terrell and Shelby St. Pierre, want to make our mark on the campus of Hamline University. We aim to build strong relationships with students, student organizations, HUSC representatives, faculty and the board of trustees. What we’ll bring to the table is a new culture to HUSC like the new president of Hamline University will bring. We will make sure we use money toward students’ needs. Although we will implement new changes our mission remains the same, we want to be the voice for Hamline’s student body by listening to students ideas and possible solutions they offer. In return, we’ll use our resources to best address those issues and/or concerns to make Hamline a better place for students. For instance, one student has informed us how there’s been a growing issue of students not being able to afford food, we would like to address that by having a Hamline food drive to support our fellow students. We plan to issue more surveys to students to make sure we are addressing issues students would like to see change and of course we’d be willing to meet and listen to students during our office hours. We will change the printing program and ensure every undergraduate student will have 200 free printing pages per semester. We want HUSC to get involved with student organizations and clubs, for instance, we as President and Vice President would attend events and meetings to understand and know what our clubs and student organizations at Hamline are about and what they strive to achieve. Rather than be an authority to those organizations we want to work in conjunction with them. If clubs and organizations are having problems we want to help them, for example, if they are having funding problems or have trouble finding places for their club to meet, we feel we’re obligated to seek a solution for them. We’re also looking into bringing in fresh fruit to Anderson Center’s cuisine to implement a healthier dietary standard. We want to find a better use for the empty space in Sorin. In regards to making a HUSC a bigger presence on campus, our plan is to implement a HUSC session in Piper Passages and Piper Preview so first-year students are aware of who we are and how we could be of service to them. We also want to work in conjunction with our alumni program to encourage students to build and maintain relationships with Hamline alums. We feel bringing back the commuter connections program will fill a void for commuter students and give them that extra resource to help them enjoy their time at Hamline. Most importantly, we want to put HUSC on the map at Hamline University and hold a bigger presence in the Hamline community so we can better serve and represent the undergraduate student body at Hamline University.

It’s time for change and we will make it happen. Vote Gino Terrell and Shelby St. Pierre for HUSC 2015-2016 President and Vice President.

Eric Yeakel & Racey Rodne

We, Eric Yeakel and Racey Rodne, are running for President and Vice President of HUSC. We are running because we believe that for all the good HUSC accomplishes on campus, there is a lot that it has yet to achieve and obstacles to overcome. We, as outsiders to HUSC, offer a fresh perspective on many issues that we believe plague our Undergraduate body. Yet along with this fresh perspective, we both have solid understandings of the functioning and interworkings of HUSC through our long held interest, and connections to its members and activities.

Our goal is to make HUSC more than it currently limits itself to. We will make HUSC more accessible to every student through actively promoting activities and creating a more approachable atmosphere that it currently lacks. We will ensure that HUSC, along with all of its members, have more presence on campus to better build relationships and ensure that HUSC is the voice of the students, rather than the voice of its own members. We want to see HUSC be fair, equal, and balanced towards every Student Organization on our campus. We no longer want to see HUSC treating Organizations as financial burdens, and rather, we intend to see them as opportunities for student growth.

HUSC is a resource for students; it is a bridge between the Administration and us, the student body. We, if elected, will connect and unite students, empower and strengthen Student Organizations, promote and align HUSC closer to the Students, and finally, we will create a Student Congress that follows through with promises of action. We thank you for your consideration, and remember to vote for Yeakel | Rodne for HUSC President and Vice President.