Archivist note: Originally published on the Elections WordPress site. Feb 8, 2014 @ 00:10, “The President of SGA”
Continue reading “2014 February Elections Candidate Statement: The President of SGA”
Bryn Mawr College Self-Government Association Archives
Archivist note: Originally published on the Elections WordPress site. Feb 8, 2014 @ 00:10, “The President of SGA”
Continue reading “2014 February Elections Candidate Statement: The President of SGA”
Archivist note: Originally published on the Elections WordPress site. Feb 8, 2014 @ 00:03, “The Secretary/Parliamentarian of SGA”
Continue reading “2014 February Elections Candidate Statement: The Secretary/Parliamentarian of SGA”
Archivist note: Originally published on the Elections WordPress site. Feb 7, 2014 @ 23:57, “The Treasurer of SGA”
Continue reading “2014 February Elections Candidate Statement: The Treasurer of SGA”
Archivist note: Originally published on the Elections WordPress site. Feb 7, 2014 @ 23:52, “The Vice-President of SGA”
Continue reading “2014 February Elections Candidate Statement: The Vice-President of SGA”
Archivist Note: Originally published on the Elections wordpress site. Nov 20, 2015 @ 10:07, “Committee on Public Safety Candidates’ Statement”
Continue reading “Committee on Public Safety Candidates’ Statement”
Archivist Note: Originally published on the Elections wordpress site, Sep 18, 2015 @ 01:12, “CANDIDATES STATEMENT September Elections: 2017 Class President”
Emma Porter:
Hello! My name is Emma Porter, and I am running for 2017 junior class president. I am really excited about the opportunity to work together and continue to build on the sense of community that welcomed us into Bryn Mawr back when we were first-year students.
In my time at Bryn Mawr so far, I have enjoyed collaborating with fellow classmates and other members of the community, which encouraged me to consider running as your class president. Last year, I served as a Customs Person in Rhoads North, where I learned the value of communication between the student body and administrative offices. I have also founded two student groups on campus, one of which being “First Go-ers” for first-generation college students. In my involvement in “First-Goers”, I found the importance in providing a sounding board for students, which would be the role I would adopt as the junior class president.
As your class president, I will actively listen to my classmates to continue to make Bryn Mawr our own. I value SGA as a platform for the student voice, and I will represent our class and vocalize the desires and concerns of our community at weekly SGA meetings.
In addition to acting on student input, I will foster a stronger community within our class. First, I am excited to welcome in our new sister class of 2019 by working closely with their president(s) to host combined 2019/2017 teas. I also look forward to reaching out to the many members of our class who are abroad this year, and send them post-cards from their friends at home!
I am excited to launch my campaign to become your next class president, and I hope to connect with many more of my classmates. Please fee l free to contact me at elporter@brynmawr.edu.
More information about elections and the other candidates running can be found at http://elections.blogs.brynmawr.edu/; or you can contact the elections heads, Joy and Delaney, at jschan@brynmawr.edu and dcwilliams@brynmawr.edu.
Thank you for reading, and I encourage you all to vote. Voting will take place starting September 21 at 9 am through September 22 at 7 pm.
Best wishes,
Emma Porter
Jess Shill & Katherine Nickols:
We are running for 2017 Class Presidents because we want to help make our classmate’s penultimate year at Bryn Mawr as memorable as possible. Junior year is a key year—we’re finally over the sophomore slump and many of us are studying abroad—but it is also a very stressful year. With many of us studying abroad this year, it is easy to lose touch with our classmates, hindering the tight knit community fostered at Bryn Mawr. We will do everything in our power to prevent that from happening and make sure that our class will stay as connected as possible this year, no matter how busy we all are.
We plan on doing this by planning even more class teas, along with reaching out to those abroad by sending postcards and care packages to remind them of home. We also want to make the class teas more inclusive and accessible for every member of our class by hosting them at hours for people with extracurricular activities, or for those who live off campus, could attend based on their schedules. That way, we can have the maximum amount of members of our class there, allowing us to build relationships with members which we may not have been able to foster otherwise.
Through these teas, we as class presidents will also seek to hear the voices of our class so we can better represent their ideas and voices in SGA. We want to be accessible and transparent to our fellow reds, so we will try to be as visible on campus as possible and keep you up to date on current SGA matters via social media, email, and our teas. This will all help strengthen the unity of our class, while also helping us represent our class as accurately as possible.
We also want to stay connected to the rest of the community, and continue to maintain our already strong relationships with the evens (2016 and 2018), and help guide our sister class through their first year here. We will do this again through the class teas, but instead of having them be exclusively to our class, we will have teas with the other classes as well.
Although we have not previously held positions in SGA before, we have always wanted to get to; we just were not sure what position would be best suited for us. We believe that junior year class co-presidents is the position for us, and we believe that we have the experience to do this because we both have extensive backgrounds in leadership. Both of us are members of the Varsity Soccer Team, where we have gained invaluable leadership experience and time management skills. Furthermore, we both have very different academic backgrounds, and the combination of these will help us plan and manage the best class events. Jess is an Economics major, so she has the knowledge to make sure we’re maximizing the budget we’re given. Meanwhile, Katherine is a history major with a focus on Gender, Sexuality, and Race, so she will ensure that all events are inclusive and enjoyable for everyone. Together, we believe that we have the necessary experience and desire to make junior year at Bryn Mawr the best year yet for each and every one of our fellow Reds.
Sedi Agawu & Alexis Wiltshire:
Hello! We are Sedinam Agawu and Alexis Wiltshire and we are running for 2017 class presidents. We can be contacted at sdagawu@bmc and amcdonald@bmc. Sedi is a junior anthropology major on the pre-med track. Alexis is a junior history major. We are interested in the position of Class Presidents because we want to foster a better sense of community within our class, as well as create a more inclusive environment. Bryn Mawr is an institution that really values connections and community, and we want to further that ideal. Our ideas include hosting teas for transfers and McBrides in the class of 2017. We also want to continue the tradition of holding sibling class teas and postcard making teas for our classmates who are studying abroad as a way of including them in our community, even though they aren’t physically here. Another idea we had is to make our events more accessible to those with disabilities. We want to do more to bring attention to the struggles of students with disabilities, and make sure that we’re doing our best to keep students with disabilities feeling safe and included on Bryn Mawr’s campus.
Concerning our involvement with SGA prior to this semester, Alexis was the 2014-2015 Perry House Dorm Co-President and therefore served on the representative council. She is currently one of the junior history major representatives and has experience working with others, collaborating on projects, and organizing events. Sedi has held several leadership positions, including Customsperson and Dorm Traditions Representative, as well as Dorm Representative. Since we both have experience in communication and event organization, we plan to draw on this to help us more efficiently plan events for the Class of 2017. We also want to draw on our class community, because ultimately, we are here to represent their ideas. We plan to stay in contact with our class in order to make them really feel like we are doing our best to be there for them.
We are both very excited for this opportunity to become Co-Class Presidents, and are looking forward to being able to represent such an amazing class!
Archivist Note: Originally published on the Elections wordpress site. Sep 18, 2015 @ 01:14, “CANDIDATES STATEMENT September Elections: Co-Faculty Representative”
Melanie Bahti & Erin Saladin:
Melanie Bahti ’16 and Erin Saladin ’16: Co-Faculty Representatives
Melanie: I am interested in holding the position of Faculty Representative in order to continue my involvement in SGA into my senior year, and to continue being involved in the Bryn Mawr community. The position of Faculty Rep is an important one for community building, since both students and faculty are members of this community but often find communicating with and understanding one another difficult. Erin and I both hope to use this position as an opportunity to serve as liaisons between students and faculty, and to provide information and opinions to both groups. I have experience working with faculty in my past roles as Member and Head of the Honor Board, and more recently as a student consultant as part of TLI. I have also worked closely with my peers in those positions, and as a TA and in DLT positions. I hope to leverage these skills and experiences to communicate effectively with both students and faculty, and to connect both constituencies in meaningful ways.
Erin: I think self-governance is exciting not because it gives us as students some kind of unilateral power, but because it allows us to participate in a community composed of students, alums, staff, and faculty. I am excited to work with Melanie to facilitate conversation among students and faculty to help maintain our campus community as a respectful and collaborative space. Like Melanie, I have worked with faculty and students in multiple contexts throughout my time at Bryn Mawr. Most recently, I worked as a summer research assistant. I have also acted as a student leader in various capacities, including as a club president, a student manager at the library, and a DLT member. Having co-held the position of Faculty Representative during the 2013-2014 academic year, I look forward to returning to both to the Representative Council and the specific position with new perspectives I have since gained through student leadership and closer working relationships with members of the faculty.
Archivist Note: Originally published on the Elections wordpress site. Sep 18, 2015 @ 01:15, “CANDIDATES STATEMENT September Elections: Pensby Representative”
Diamond Ray:
My name is Diamond Ray and I am running for the position of Pensby/Office of Intercultural Affairs Representative. I currently am the Community Diversity Assistant for Merion Hall and I am also a member of the Appointments Committee in the Self Government Association. Additionally, I am employed as a tour guide in Bryn Mawr’s Office of Admissions. I can confidently say that throughout all of my experiences since I started attending Bryn Mawr, I have made it a priority to encourage discussions of inclusion and intercultural awareness throughout the campus and beyond. I am certainly prepared to continue dialogues with Stephanie Nixon and Vanessa Christman on the subject of intercultural inclusion. I look forward to navigating a variety of different spaces on campus with the intent of increasing intercultural awareness between students and faculty. I always kept in contact with Vanessa and Stephanie since the first time I met them as a first year during the tri-college diversity program. Facilitating spaces for the encouragement and discussion of identity has always been essential to me and becoming a Community Diversity Assistant only increased my excitement.
As the CDA of Merion it is actually my duty to encourage dialogues about the variety of identities on campus and also to urge other students to be fearless in tackling uncomfortable topics about such issues. I am an active member of several groups on campus. This aspect would be valuable as the Pensby Representative because it grants me the ability to offer a unique lens on the conversations that are actually happening on campus and how the center for Intercultural Affairs could be more present. Ultimately, no one really has the ability to be or not to be qualified to facilitate or discuss issues of identity. As the Pensby/Ofiice of Intercultural Affairs Representative I would remind people of the power of their voices and execute that with those in the Pensby center to create a more interculturally aware environment for everyone on campus.
Archivist Note: Originally published on the Elections wordpress site. Sep 18, 2015 @ 01:20. “CANDIDATES STATEMENT September Elections: Haverford College Representatives”
Rina Patel & Maria Minaya:
Rina Patel rppatel@brynmawr.edu
Maria Minaya mminaya@brynmawr.edu
Position: Haverford Representative
We are interested in the position because we truly love the amazing relationship that exists between Haverford and Bryn Mawr. As well as having strong relationships here at Bryn Mawr, we have also established meaningful connections with members of the Haverford community. This position is of great importance as it requires our regular participation in meetings that will help solidify the connection between Bryn Mawr and Haverford. In order to succeed in this position, we will need a certain set of skills. Some of these skills include excellent organization and communication. Interacting with others in the bi-co is necessary to maintain the close relationship that already exists. Even before coming to Bryn Mawr, Maria was quite familiar with the bi-co due to multiple High School connections. Maria used to be a participant in the Mentoring and Student teaching (MAST) program at Haverford as a junior in high school. Rina this past year was a student teacher with the same program at Haverford. Additionally Rina fully utilized the customs cousins relationship, she was making weekly visit to her “cousins” which helped her feel comfortable taking many courses at Haverford her first year. Through our connections, we have been able to closely observe the ways in which both colleges interact and communicate with one another.
Due to a lack of communication between the Haverford and Bryn Mawr dining services, we were not aware of the new meal plan being implemented at Haverford. Because of this, we allowed first years to bring guests to the Erdman Dining Hall. Thanks to Maria’s connections, she was able to find out that the new meal plan did not include guest passes. Although the relationship between both colleges is well-established, both institutions sometimes forget to keep each other apprised of the changes occurring. As Haverford College Representatives, we will work to keep the student body on both campuses aware of events and new policies. One thing that would make the position stronger would be to have at least one conjoined SGA meeting in which the Haverford and Bryn Mawr community could come as one and talk about the bi-co relationship and ways to make the connection as strong as it can be.
Rina has been involved with SGA throughout her Bryn Mawr Career. From being the Rockefeller first year dorm rep and being a member of the Plenary committee Rina truly loves all things SGA. With our shared knowledge of the Bi-College system we will be able to expand on our current contributions to the SGA and hopefully foster more dialogue between the two campuses. For example we hope to have more communication about Haverford and Bryn Mawr’s plenaries. There is a lot of potential for both campuses to collaborate and expand on each others resolutions to improve campus life. Maybe even start dialogue for shared resources such as the Blue bus , 360s, the choir and dining services. With this dialogue we can find an avenue for both campuses to share their input on what they would like to see more of and what they would like to see changed. We are so excited to take on this role !