Chris Lyden (President) who is studying Business hopes to use his experience if elected to learn how to run an organization as big as the college student body. He believes that in doing so, he can help students carry out their objectives in achieving better intern ships and better job opportunities.
He hopes that by lobbying to employers for better internships, students graduating or those continuing can achieve better results with their education and give students resources as well as connections to be successful beyond or alongside their education.
“I really want to establish a placement program for students.” He believes that if he can help create such a program for students, that students will have a higher success in getting a full time job upon graduating.
Lyden also believes that in reducing unnecessary spending, the student body will have more funding available for resources used everyday like printing and computers. He also hopes that the cutting of extra unnecessary funding will allow for student organizations to utilize student funds to provide for activities for social and academic growth.
Mike Bird (running for President) and Robert Corbridge (running for Executive Vice President) are both Business majors at SLCC and chose to run for office based on their experience with the Student Senate and several campus organizations. Both hope if elected, to advocate student ideas by incorporating better student and student senate relations.
Bird and Corbridge also hope to work on keeping student tuition to stay at a minimum, to lower student fees, and to find a way to reduce public bus transportation fees or provide inner-school transportation.
As President, Bird said that the most important task would be to reduce the unnecessary constant change in textbook editions. “The books are a huge key in finances for students, and constant textbook editions are costly and not needed.” Bird said. Bird plans to muster the Academic Department in keeping textbook editions for a period of three years and establish a rental system for students.
As VP, Corbridge plans to advocate for students of technical trades and better involve them in the legislative committees since they make up about 40% of the student population. “I think that if we actively seek out these students to be a part of boards and committees, we can then incorporate the entire school into a more unified body,” Corbridge said.
Erik Castaneda (running for President) and Peter Moosman (running for Executive Vice President) are both current Executive Vice Presidents. If elected, they both said they hope to bring that experience and passion in continuing to advocate for student rights and transparency within the student government.
Both hope that through advocating transparency, students will be able to track what their leaders are doing and that this awareness will help students easily come forward with any issues or concerns. Moosman said that this will allow students to be involved with solutions and changes that will effectively better the student’s learning experience.
“The most important thing is to serve the students…to have them as the priority,” Moosman said.
Both Moosman and Castaneda said that they believe their leadership experience so far has qualified them to continue with carrying out the ideals of the College and its students.
According to an SL&L Press Release, Elenora Vaccariello (running for President) and Kristina Royzman (running for Executive Vice President) both hope to use their diverse ethnic backgrounds to promote more solidarity within the student body.
“I would proudly represent the diversity that is a characteristic of SLCC,” Vaccariello said.
As running mates, they plan to incorporate the many international students and ethnicities represented in the student body within the student government process and the Clubs and Organizations. In this way they believe that students of all backgrounds can embrace and share their individuality.
Vaccariello also said, if elected, she would like to ensure students involved with Student Life and Leadership have the opportunity to help promote more activities by combining and collaborating with various branches of SL&L so that they can better expose to the student body what SL&L can do for students.
If elected, Royzman said that she will help SL&L along with the Student Senate to address students concerns effectively and work to reduce the cost of public transportation for students or create inner-school transportation, and to push to maintain a three year textbook policy.