Every year two freshmen students win the position of what used to be called freshman class representative. This year, however, the members of the class of 2020 ran for what Student Government is calling “Freshman Vice Presidents”. The winners of the election, Kerry Cavanagh and Cedric St. Louis, are eager to begin their new roles.
Deciding to run is an important task in itself. Freshman must pick up a petition that has to be signed by 50 people, stating they believe the student will be a good candidate to represent the class. This may be a daunting task in itself – can the student get the signatures in order to get their name and platform out there?
When elections were held on September 22, it was time to see if the petitions and clever flyers hanging up around campus made an impact. Five days later, the results were announced on the MC Announcements emails. He expects the best of the two freshman, who will hold many responsibilities.
“The Freshman Class Vice Presidents are the voice of their class. They represent the class in different aspects of the college, varying from Student Government to various campus committees,” Steele said.
There is also a heightened sense of reputation to the position. Steele says the decision to change the title from representative, as it has been in the past, to Vice President, was made in order to emphasize the importance of all the things the new VPs will be doing.
“Based on my experience with this position – I’ve been at MC for a year and six months – the VPs hold town hall meetings to hear questions, comments, or concerns relating to their class. Afterwards, they bring this information to Student Government and my office. From there, they will figure out which direction to go to assist their class,” Steele said.
By attending meetings like the Resident Student Association, among others, the class of 2020 is able to have their voices heard with their VPs in attendance. Although they are the most recent class to come to MC, Cavanagh and St. Louis want to represent their class in the best way possible.
“We want to get as much student input as possible, like by posting on the [Facebook] page. I know working with charities is something I did in my high school… Our main goal is to make Manhattan College as good as it can be and hearing what the freshman class has to say,” Cavanagh said.
Specific ideas are important to the two. Cavanagh recently posted in the Class of 2020 Facebook page as she had said, encouraging students to stop them whenever they see them if they ever have any ideas. By making themselves so easily accessible, they will be able to get the ideas to those who are higher up in Student Government quickly.
“We’re focusing on Locke’s [as an idea]. We’re asking students for input on what they want to see [in Locke’s]. I asked some of my friends for their ideas and the biggest thing is trash cans. We don’t really have enough trash cans in there,” said St. Louis.
As it has been made clear, there has already been brainstorming on behalf of classmates and friends. Student Government is an important part of any college but at MC, it is a leadership position that will most closely benefit those involved and the entirety of the student body.
“[Something I want to see] is uniting our class and making sure we are one cohesive group. We’re all one class and we’re all Jaspers at the end of the day,” Cavanagh said.