With elections on Wednesday, the newly elected student senate executive team members need to remember to finish pre-existing initiatives before devoting themselves to their own platforms.
Because there are two presidential candidates on the ballot, the student body gets the chance to choose their leader based on their support of a particular platform or goals.
Students need to educate themselves on these platforms before voting either by following senate election updates on the Circuit or talking to the candidates regarding any questions or concerns they might have for themselves and the school.
The first step the future president and vice president should take is to find out what the students want and need and act accordingly—even before they start their own projects.
This role cannot lie solely on members of senate; students with requests or inquiries need to be active with their senators.
Senate has instituted several ways to make this communication with the student body easier which include Facebook, Twitter and even a regularly updated blog.
Those who are elected should be sure not to neglect the previous initiatives started by this year’s senate team.
In fact, as much passion and determination should be put into finishing the projects as went into starting them.
These already started projects include sustainability efforts, strengthening the function of the ITS Task Force and continued work on explaining to students the Wartburg budget.
A public timeline of goals and deadlines of what senate hopes to achieve should be available to the student body as well, an idea put in place by the current student body president, and one that should continue in the following year.
Although the incoming executive team has their own plans for the following school year, they need to take extra care in remembering their most important role: acting as the “voice” of the student body.
Senate needs to allow that voice to be heard as often as possible, even if it means putting their new goals aside.