On Wednesday, Feb.19, Student Government announced the executive board election results for the 2014-2015 school year with sophomore Kunal Atit as president, sophomore Ramsey Amad as vice president, and freshman Madeline Bennetti as secretary. The Officer of Technology (IT) and Treasurer positions will be announced on Monday, Feb. 24 after interviews for these positions are held.
Atit currently holds the president position for the class of 2016. In order to secure his position on the executive board, Atit ran an intensive campaign.
“The way I campaigned for the executive board president was first attempting to meet with as many club presidents as I possibly could to see what they wanted from student government and to illustrate to them why my presidency would best serve both the entire student body and their club in particular. On the day of the election, I turned to social media, as well as reaching out to as many students as I could to speak to them one-on-one as to why I thought I was right for the job,” said Atit.
Kunal Atit poses with President Troha
Amad, on the other hand, has not had previous experience with student government and relied heavily on his popularity here at Juniata College in order to secure the vice president position.
“I’m not going to lie to you, I’m very well-known and liked at this campus, and I didn’t do any campaigning other than telling people that I was running,” said Amad.
Vice President Ramsey Amad
Bennetti spoke with her classmates, friends, and strangers about what she wanted to do as a member of the executive board. Bennetti had prior experience with the secretary position in high school and during her freshman year as the secretary for the class of 2017.
All three of the newly-elected members have expressed concern over the current, stagnant state of student government, and they all have high goals for the next school year.
Atit said, “I ran on the idea that student government has lost its way and is ineffective. What my election shows is that the student body agrees with me. I’m just excited to start fixing the organization and unleash its tremendous potential to do good on this campus.”
Secretary Madeline Bennetti
“I want to do a lot for the student body. I’d first like to put printers in the lounges of residence halls because printing is a hassle on our campus. I’m also working to amend our constitution to allow our government to be more efficient. I believe change cannot come from an organization that is inefficient,” said Amad.
“I want the executive board to do less. I want to encourage other members of student government to come up with ideas, inform themselves about solutions, and propose legislation to solve things. I’m going to try to inspire members of student senate to take a more active role instead of relying on the executive board to create discussion in student government. I see us as more of facilitators of student government, not leaders,” said Bennetti.
Atit, Amad, and Bennetti expressed honor and gratitude upon being elected onto the executive board, and they are excited to make a lasting impact on the lives of all Juniata students.