The Ashland University Student Senate held their annual elections two weeks ago and they now welcome five new president and vice president students into the fold.

The new officers were sworn in on Sept. 28 and are now serving in their new roles as well as carrying out the goals for their term.

Recently elected Junior class Vice President Ellie Richardson has already been hard at work on different campus initiatives alongside Junior class President, Tasha Coleman who was elected last semester.

“I ran on the motto of ‘you create the world you want to live in,’” Richardson said. “Both of us just fall into that and we want to be able to push for change.

Richardson’s initiatives that she stands behind are better communication with the junior class, raising the wages made by campus employees in places such as Convo and more quiet spaces for students to utilize for work.

Alongside these changes that she wishes to see come to campus over time, Richardson also believes that recycling needs to be reimplemented on campus as a practice for students.

“Its super important that—especially our age group—is aware of what’s going on with the earth…the little things that are so easy to do, were not done because of cost and I think that’s really sad,” Richardson concluded.

As her term proceeds, Richardson expressed that she aims to be an advocate for students and gain the knowledge to implement changes on campus in the most impactful way.

*Alongside Richardson in a Vice President role is Lincoln Dupre, the senior class vice president. While he has been elected to the role, he has yet to determine exactly what he wishes to do with it.

“It’s my last year and I wanted to be part of the Student Senate again,” Dupre said. “I just wanted a position; I didn’t really pick the Vice President for any specific reason.”

Three years ago, Dupre was on the senate as Vice President of his Freshman class.

Dupre is looking to help with the senior project, as well as any other committees that need a hand, acting as a jack of all trades to the senate.

Michelle Sant is representing the senior class as well as their president and ran on the platform of diversity and inclusion as well as women’s opportunities on campus, as she was the only female candidate running in the position.

“I want to make sure there are no problems around diversity and inclusion. I also have seen some issues around the covid policies, especially [with] the quarantine rules so I want to figure out how we can work on sorting that out.”

On top of these initial initiatives, Sant said she looks forward to pushing for changes as she sees them needing to be implemented on campus.

The freshman class also elected both a class president and vice president this semester and are being represented by Kayin McDonald and Heath Johnston respectively.

Some of the items on the freshman class platform include fixing problems with lighting, food preparation, Campus Shield, safety and counseling.

“I hope to see some improvements,” Johnston said. “Faculty have to approve any sort of resolution we come up with [and] everything has to fit into the budgets…but at least being a voice to people and being able to hear and represent them in the Student Senate is important.

Both Johnston and McDonald are looking forward to instilling change on campus alongside one another.

“Heath and I went out multiple days and we would knock door to door and ask people what they thought needed to be improved on campus. So, we got a pretty good list,” McDonald said.

After ensuring that they were running on the needs of students, candidates were elected to their position, and they look to serve their campus through their roles.

The Student Senate meets every Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. in the Student Center Conference Rooms on the second floor.

Gallery • 5 Photos

SUBMITTED BY: LINCOLN DUPRE

Senior Class Vice President, Lincoln Dupre