Nikki Hoseus
Contributing Writer
On Thursday, Feb. 7, the election results for the Student Government Association’s (SGA) Executive Board seats were released. The Executive Board officers for 2019-2020 are: Emilee McCubbins ’20 (president), Nick Shereikis ’20 (vice president), Nabil Osborn ’20 (secretary) and Issac Weiss ’20 (treasurer).
McCubbins has been involved in SGA since her first year. Interested in politics and attempting to make a positive change on campus, McCubbins ran for president after holding many officer positions in SGA throughout her years here at Wooster because of her love for advocacy. McCubbins hopes to challenge the status quo while maintaining a transparent presidency throughout her term. Her main campaign is to work with faculty and administration to make the College more accessible for students who are struggling financially or are from low-income families.
“As a first-generation, low-income college student, I can say with experience that this school is not the most accessible for students who are struggling [financially]. Obviously, a year’s term is not going to completely change the socio-economic make-up or culture of the College, but a year is plenty of time to start having conversations with faculty and administration to further level the playing field between students,” she said.
She also hopes to have more involvement from all of the student body, creating a more representative body on campus.
Shereikis, the new vice president, originally ran for office in his first-year after receiving feedback on a viewpoint he wrote for the Voice that focused on mental health and suicide awareness. Shereikis ran for office this year from his study abroad program in Scotland; he had help from Grace O’Leary ’20 in order to achieve everything. Shereikis will be focusing on improving the accessibility of mental health support services and resources on campus by working alongside Wellness. In addition to this focus, Shereikis says his big hope for the coming year is “that we can have clear, honest and effective communication” between the student body and the student government. He believes we need “a student government that actually listens to the student body.” He has already had people reach out about several concerns, from the parking system on campus to installing bat houses. He said this is the work he wants to bring to SGA and is open to hearing and addressing more concerns/ideas throughout his term.
Weiss, the re-elected treasurer, has also been involved in SGA since his first year and like the other officers, ran because he wanted to advocate for students. Last year he ran for treasurer because he “saw an opportunity to do great work with the Allocations Committee.”
The Allocations Committee distributes money to campus groups. During his time as treasurer he worked to create a more consistent and well-rounded Allocations Committee. He anticipates continuing to work on this throughout this year and the rest of his time in SGA. He specifically would like to reconsider the amount of the money the school requests for the student activities fee.
“I’ve been through the Allocations Committee process twice now, and I’ll be doing it once more this year, and I think the idea of raising the student activities fee merits some further thought,” stated Weiss.
Reflecting on his past as an officer for SGA, he said, “I’m happy with the work that I get to do, I think I’m very passionate about it, and I ran for re-election this year to be able to continue to do the good work I’ve gotten to do during my time in SGA.”
SGA meets every Wednesday at 8 p.m. in Lowry 119 if anyone is interested in voicing their concerns, ideas, or would like to know what SGA is discussing and focusing on.