With the option of voting either online or in person at Willard Straight Hall, Cornellians elected their representatives for 2002-2003 class council last Thursday.
While all three class president races were contested, several other races were not.
There are also various spots in each class yet to be filled.
Applications for open positions will be available this week, according to Jennifer Davis, assistant dean of students for student activities.
Three of the newly elected representatives expressed their goals for next year and their plans for leading their respective classes.
One objective of next year’s senior class president Steve Harasim ’03 is to effectively utilize the Student Activity Fee for future events, such as the annual Senior Week and graduation.
“We are looking at lowering prices for Senior Week events,” Harasim said, who is acting as class treasurer this year. “Planning events with other student groups is a primary goal that I have. Many students are involved in separate groups; however, by combining efforts and money, better programs can be put on,” Harasim said.
“Currently, [our] campus needs a sense of unification and I hope that we can work to help provide events that are inclusive and positive,” he added.
Harasim hopes to work with the senior members of the class council to improve upon and think of new ideas for next year.
One goal is to get students more involved with class issues.
“I encourage any student to contact me with comments or suggestions for activities, or changes on campus,” Harasim said.
He discussed some ideas for including more student input on class events.
“I would like to launch a web-based newsletter for the class of 2003. Hopefully, this can be a message board that connects students from different organizations,” he said. “We are also hoping to have meetings to discuss issues.”
Other issues for the senior class are graduation and finding a speaker for commencement ceremonies. While making graduation a key focus for next year, Harasim wants his class members to participate in the planning and choosing of a speaker.
“I think that the whole class will have to look at [the issue],” Harasim said.
Next year’s junior class officers have many of the same goals, according to Stephanie Adams ’04, who will be vice president for giveaways.
“We want new, innovative ideas and we want to encourage the junior class to come to us with ideas,” said Adams.
According to Adams, one of the main goals of the junior class council will be to promote class unity.
“We are going to try to hold events that will unify the class,” she said. “We are here to provide students with opportunities to get together and have fun.”
Class of 2005 president Steve Blake ’05 expressed his ideas for next year’s sophomore class and what motivated him to run for the position.
“I think that I have the skills to put on events and I will work well with other members of our class,” Blake said.
Blake discussed plans to institute new and original ideas for activities and events for next year.
“We are going to start planning an event series for next fall,” he added.
Some events he suggested were a winter formal at a local winery, instead of the traditional Statler Auditorium, hosting a class trip to New York City and sponsoring more Ice Time events and different activities such as rock-climbing.
Another of Blake’s objectives is to get students more involved with their student government and to allow the student council to have more weight in making decisions that affect students.
“We are going to launch a campaign to get more people involved in class council. We are also going to look at allowing class presidents more power with the Student Assembly (S.A.),” Blake said.
“I would also like to see the class councils work together more,” he added.
Blake also hopes to advertise events through the class’ website and with e-mail so that more students will be informed and encouraged to participate in activities.
“We are hoping to work with the class of 2005.com web page and in getting more publicity to make our events bigger and attract the most people,” Blake said.
Archived article by Mackenzie Damon