Students elect first-year and Brainerd senators

Nathan LaBarba ’14 and Joanie Thompson ’14 were elected first-year senators to the Student Government Association (SGA), and Charlie Arnowitz ’13 won the Brainerd Commons senator position in last Friday’s election.

LaBarba and Thompson were two of eight first-year candidates running for this position. SGA Director of Membership Caroline Regan ’12 reported that 218 of the 580 members of the first-year class voted in the election. Although only 38 percent of first-years voted in the election, both LaBarba and Thompson expressed a common goal of reaching out to their classmates and generating cohesiveness within their class throughout the year.

“I want to take the voice of my classmates somewhere where it can be heard and acted on,” wrote LaBarba in an e-mail. “My goal is bring the Class of 2014 together as one unit working together toward positive change.”

Thompson expressed a similar perspective.

“I plan to reach out to my classmates by being approachable and getting to know people in a genuine way,” he said.

As first-years, Thompson and LaBarba expressed some uncertainty about the official duties of the SGA and its role on campus, and were therefore unable to provide specific goals for this year. However, both vowed to be accessible to their classmates and expressed general goals of student satisfaction.

“Happy students means a happy environment,” LaBarba said, “so I want to do whatever I can to help secure that, whether that means talking about issues with the Dining Services, working with the Commons Councils or just planning fun things to do.”

Both Thompson and LaBarba held prominent positions in their respective high schools’ student government bodies and plan to bring those leadership skills to the senator position.

In the Brainerd Commons senatorial election, Arnowitz beat out Elizza Goeke ’12 for the Brainerd senator position. Arnowitz expressed enthusiasm for his new role, and laid out a well-defined agenda for this year in an e-mail interview. He cited equalizing laundry prices and expanding wireless Internet as two of the goals he hopes to accomplish for Brainerd Commons.

“I hope to serve as a liason between Commons Council and SGA, and to clarify the role of the Commons system,” Arnowitz added.

Arnowitz stressed that his attention will not be limited to Brainerd-related concerns, and vows to improve the relationship between the SGA and the student body.

“The SGA serves a pretty limited function right now because of its lack of visibility,” Arnowitz said. “If SGA wants people to pay attention, then they have to stop eroding their own credibility through lack of communication (especially the website), poorly run elections and limited meaningful action.”