Ladies…(and Gentlemen), I give you Andrew Ladd and Chris Rettich—
So let’s hear about the platform.
Andrew Ladd: Well one major issue that is very important to us is student voice. Something WSA is good at is voicing student concerns to administration. That’s something we want to grow upon.
Chris Rettich: Student outreach is also something important to us. We are the voice of the 25,000 students here and right now we aren’t doing much to reach out to them, we expect them to come to us, and that is not what we want. We need to go to them.
How do you plan on reaching every student?
Chris Rettich: As vice president, I will constantly be meeting with students, meeting with three Greek governing councils, and getting to as many events as possible, so that were available to all students. We need to be approachable.
Andrew Ladd: We also want to start student councils in every college. We plan on having that done when we get back here in the fall.
What do you think forming these different student councils will bring to WMU?
Andrew Ladd: It will bring a sense of unity in each college, and will give students ways to reach out to leaders in their department. I am a founding member of the Aviation Student Council, and it is something that has been successful and will be successful in every college.
How do you plan on spreading student voices throughout the community?
Andrew Ladd: We want to take student voices to different places—mainly throughout the Kalamazoo community—beginning with the Kalamazoo City Commission. I have already worked with Bobby Hopewell, Kalamazoo’s Mayor, and other members of the city commission. If we want to voice the concerns of students in Kalamazoo we need to be in contact with people of Kalamazoo. It’s that simple.
So then what’s next after that?
Andrew Ladd: Taking student concerns to Michigan legislature. The vehicle for student voices’ there is the Student Association of Michigan. We want to secure higher education appropriations, not only in Western but other universities. SAM offers these opportunities for us.
Chris Rettich: Something else we want to address, are student assessment fees.
Andrew Ladd: The Student Assessment Fee is a fee that students pay each semester and it is divided amongst campus “agencies” such as the Western Student Association, the Campus Activities Board, the Graduate Student Advisory Committee, the Allocations Committee of the WSA, and Sports Club Council.
Each agency then gives money to registered student organizations, who have requested funding to host an event around campus. Although the SAF has recently increased, there was no corresponding revision in the WSA’s SAF Funding Guidelines or the Allocations Committee’s bylaws.
Chris Rettich: So we want to pick an Allocations Committee Chair, someone in charge of the committee. It needs to be someone good with money, non-bias. There are over 300 registered student organizations and academic programs, on campus. To aid this process we want to have a committee with one person from every academic college on campus. That is something that has never happened here.
On that note, how will you go about picking your cabinet?
Andrew Ladd: Typically when President’s pick their cabinet they are promising positions to their friends. We want to find people who are perfect for this job and we will search tirelessly. We want to break the mold of appointing friends, and we really want to find leaders from every academic college. Without that you can’t really have an accurate representation of the university. I have already talked to the deans of each college, and they are excited to work for us. I have informed them that I will be asking for students who will be interested in participating; we want to make sure that every college is represented.
Chris Rettich: We really want to get more students involved in WSA; we have a lot of senate seats that go empty every year. I would really like to go out to RSO’s, represented and not represented, and pull senators in. We need to b more welcoming then we have been in the past, we want everyone to feel comfortable.
So there you have it. Two really great guys that have a serious passion for leadership and the student body. This will be a tough choice, come election day, but hopefully knowing whether they like Cheetos or Fritos will make that choice just a little bit easier…check them out as our Campus Cuties this week and see their answers to some not so serious questions.
Make sure to vote! Voting for WSA will take place March 15-19 at www.westernstudentassociation.org