PRESIDENT: Katie Howard
President-elect Howard has experience in the SA president’s office, having worked as an assistant for current President Jared Kirschenbaum. Howard said she has been working with her predecessor to allow for a smooth transition between presidencies.
“I have spent some time forming relationships with many offices and student groups to get things done right away,” Howard said.
In the short term, Howard is hoping to devise a new system in which textbooks could be placed on reserve, though she said she was unsure of the feasibility of this plan.
Howard named as a longer term goal improving the transfer process.
“With freshman, there is orientation. The community bonds are able to grow, but for transfers it is harder to foster that bond,” Howard said.
Other long-term plans of Howard’s include adding computers and printing stations in the PODS and creating PODS in new places around campus like the Unions and Fine Arts Building.
Howard said she had other ideas for things she would like to accomplish in office, but did not think it was wise to put too many ideas forward at one time.
EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: Liz Robins
Before she was elected EVP, Robins was an assistant to current EVP Jenna Goldin.
Robins said she would work to raise intra-group collaboration as EVP. She has already started work simplifying the paperwork required for groups to obtain a charter, which she said will facilitate the formation of new student groups. She is also exploring the possibility of placing the charter form online.
Robins said a major problem that she wants to tackle when she becomes EVP is the existence of a disconnect between the student groups and the SA.
“I want to foster more care and develop greater bonds between the SA and the student groups,” Robins said.
Other goals Robins named were developing a more user-friendly online platform for groups than PAWS and looking into the feasibility of having the SA Ink sell office supplies.
VICE PRESIDENT FOR FINANCE: Karl Bernhardsen
VPF-elect Bernhardsen started his career in student government as a SA Assembly representative in his freshman year in college. He has also served on Financial Council, and since the beginning of this semester, he has worked as an assistant in the VPF’s office.
Bernhardsen said his first concern will be improving physical security in the VPF’s office.
“I’m not very happy with the way things are locked down, it is possible that someone could just walk in and take something,” Bernhardsen said. “I’m going to start by locking things down with filing cabinets and keys.”
Bernhardsen said he also wants to provide a conduit for students to get access to funding for worthy independent projects and initiatives.
“I propose to add a mechanism to give students with ideas that would benefit the greater student community access to SA funds,” Bernhardsen said.
He said he has begun work with the present VPF, Adam Shamah, to resolve insurance and other issues and establish guidelines in order to get this program up and running.
VICE PRESIDENT FOR ACADEMIC AFFAIRS: Kate Flatley
After recently winning a runoff election for the VPAA position on April 13, Flatley has begun to get the ball rolling on several key issues on which she campaigned.
“I’m looking to begin work on getting the Blackboard [smartphone] application up and running by the end of the semester, in addition to working with the pre-professional schools to provide more adequate advising, as right now there is only one adviser for those students,” she said.
She said she would also devote the remaining weeks of this semester to gaining familiarity with nuances of the position, such as who to speak to for certain issues. She added that she wanted to begin getting the University administration on board to begin work on several long-term goals right away in the fall.
“Policy change is a long and arduous process, and establishing uniform bereavement and course evaluation policies will take time,” Flatley said.
She said she firmly believes that her time working with outgoing VPAA Daniel Rabinowitz had prepared to take over the Executive Board position.
VICE PRESIDENT FOR PROGRAMMING: Catherine Cornell
Since eking out victory in the runoff election for VPP on April 13 by eight votes, Catherine Cornell has been training with Aaron Cohn, the outgoing VPP, in order to familiarize herself with the demands of her new job.
“Aaron has been guiding me through the job, helping me learn how to speak to agents and middlemen,” Cornell said.
She said she has also begun sitting in on meetings of the current E-Board with Cohn in order to get a sense of the proceedings.
Cornell described the VPP job as requiring long-term vision.
“It’s about balancing the budget so that we can bring the best possible entertainment acts for Spring Fling and other University-wide events,” she said.
VICE PRESIDENT FOR MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS: Carlton Ramsay
Ramsay said he has already started working on fulfilling one of his campaign pledges: establishing multiple events each semester that will bring together campus cultural groups.
“I’m going to work on an event for the first week of classes devoted to raising awareness to the on-campus culture groups to incoming freshmen,” Ramsay said.
Ramsay said other goals of his include creating a website for the VPMA position and instituting written guidelines for the VPMA position.
“In previous years, as the VPMA you didn’t really have to go to many meetings and it wasn’t a very demanding position,” Ramsay said. “My goal is to create tougher guidelines for the position.”