As far as elections go, Student Government Association’s presidential contest this year will be one to remember.
Between non-stop campaigning and Timberlake-inspired music videos, one, and only one, presidential team is promising full commitment to the student body on the basis of student empowerment.
Jeanette Morelan and Skyler Schmanski are running unopposed for the positions of president and vice president respectively. Their “The 2014 Experience” campaign platform, as stated by its slogan, consists of vision, enacting the vision, and empowering students as a result.
Both Morelan and Schmanski currently serve as chair for different committees in SGA. Morelan heads Campus Outreach and Events, while Schmanski serves on Policy Review.
Morelan said she wants SGA to continue working closely with student organizations through representatives in congress. She wants collecting student feedback and acting upon it to remain a top priority within SGA.
“It’s our job to get to the students, and if we don’t do that we’re failing as an organization,” Morelan said.
The main promise of Morelan’s platform is to draft more resolutions in SGA next year, and then make them a reality following a vote by Congress. This falls under the “enact” portion of her platform.
“The empowering will come from policies being enacted and students interacting with the policy-makers,” she said.
Another goal Morelan wants to address is making both SGA and Belmont administration more accessible to the student body.
“We want to prevent miscommunication,” she said. “We want to make ourselves available to meet with people, even if it’s over coffee or in the caf. If someone wants to come over to my apartment and bake cookies with me, they’re more than welcome to do that.
Constantly looking to improve will be a key part of SGA of Morelan’s presidency if she is elected, Schmanski said.
“We want to be challenged, specifically by the students. We need dissent to fuel success,” said Schmanski.
Being a leader is about more than just enacting policies, but also about learning from the position, said Morelan. She emphasized that, as a sophomore, there is still much she does not know about being a leader, even after her time in SGA.
“I’ve only been at Belmont for two years, I want my time in this position to always be a learning experience,” Morelan said.
Morelan and Schmanski decided to run together based on both of them exhibiting leadership in SGA to accomplish initiatives over the last year, Schmanski said. He said their combined skills would allow them to continue moving SGA forward.
“It’s truly the perfect combination for getting things done,” Schmanski said.
Another reason SGA accomplished so much this year, Schmanski said, was because it had a renewed sense of purpose with its newer members. If elected, Schmanski said he hopes he and Morelan will be able to continue this mentality with their actions as leaders.
“We want to be able to lay the foundations for the next team that takes office,” he said.
As far as any lasting impact from her presidency, Morelan said she wants SGA to be a place where students can go and be guaranteed a helping hand.
“At the end of the day, I want people to remember that SGA was for the students,” she said.
Voting opens today on Bruin Link.