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Candidates compete for ASLC senate positions

September 17, 2010

by Darya Watnick

This year’s Associated Students of Lewis & Clark’s Senate election will take place starting at noon today, Sept. 17, until Monday Sept. 20 at noon. Eleven first years are competing for the four spots allotted to their class. Along with them, seven sophomores, four juniors and five seniors are running.
Every Thursday the ASLC Senate meets to change what students feel needs amending and support polices that students agree with. The Senate is made up of four student representatives from each class. The ASLC Vice President is the President of the Senate and presides over these meetings.  All Senate meetings are open-door gatherings. The first one is Thursday, Sept. 23 in John R. Howard Hall Room 102. “Everyone can and should attend [Senate meetings],” said ASLC President Dith Pamp (’11).
Students only vote for up to four candidates from their class. Class ranking is decided by the registrar and the student’s amount of credits. “Voting is a way to choose who represents you,” Pamp said. Pamp would like to see more students involved with ASLC. “I hate it when the same 10 people are in charge of everything,” she said.
With the Senate, there are more ways for students to be involved across the board. Having four senators allows more representation. “It is very student lead, the Senators hold forums for their class and have office hours for students to speak about any issue,” Pamp said.
Tyler Janzen (’14) wants to alleviate problems at LC directly related to students. “If elected, I plan to establish a textbook-sharing resource for LC students in order to alleviate hefty textbook costs,” he said.
Autumn Hummel (’14) wants to make changes in the school and ensure everyone has a say.
“As a freshman I am unaware of many of the issues that my peers may be concerned with, which is why my goal is to learn about these matters in order to help foster a more effective and pleasing system. This is our school, we have the privilege to decide how we’d like it to run,” she said.
Hannah Cooper (’13) gained experience as a senator last year. “My goals are whatever the goals the people I represent are. I want to listen and then make the changes you want to see happen,” she said.
Xander Blair (’13) wants to address issues that he feels are pertinent to all students. “I’d want to start the semester with a critical look at the current meal plans – I hear all too often that the numbers just don’t add up. On a lighter note, I’d also love to get in touch with venues around Portland to get our students up in galleries and on stages in the area,” he said.
This year’s election for the Junior Class Senator will be different from the other races. With only four candidates, each student has to receive 51% of the vote in order to be a senator.
Ali Crowley (’12) said, “As a former intimate member of the senate, a frequent costumer of the Trail Room, an avid connoisseur of the internet (govITwiki.com), and a lover of Lewis & Clark I feel qualified for the position of senator… There are so many wonderful Lewis & Clark events and better communication would help students optimize their educational and pizza eating time,”
This year, one of the main issues facing students will be the possible building of a new residence hall and with that the establishment of a three-year on-campus residency requirement.
Maisha Foster-O’Neal (‘11) feels there is mostly indifference to the building of the new the residence hall and people have strong feelings about the residency requirement. “The three- year residency requirement- no one is excited about that, most people don’t want to move to that and my personal view agrees,” she said.
Sam Lehman (‘14) is opposed to the three year residency requirement as well. “I believe that as students and adults, we deserve to have the choice as to where we live,” he said.
Blair (‘13) believes that the two-year residency requirement is enough as it is and three-years would be unnecessary. “If we want to keep our upperclassmen on campus, the better way would be to have more affordable housing on or very near campus. We pay plenty enough as it is without the fairly steep cost of living in the current upper class apartments,” he said.