Candidates for Undergraduate Student Body President
Kristie Champlin
www.kristiechamplin.com
I have been a proud Yellow Jacket and faithful supporter of Tech traditions all of my life. I am a third-year Public Policy major and believe in the value of public service and the function of government. I have served in the SGA for three years and am running for Student Body President because I want to change Tech to better serve our students. I have the drive, direction, and determination it takes to be a great Student Body President and believe that together we can take Tech’s vision for being top in the nation and make it a reality.
Experience:
• Institute-Wide Committees Chair for SGA Executive Cabinet
• SGA Undergraduate House of Representatives
• Student Academic and Financial Affairs Committee
• GT Earth Day Committee
• Service-Learning Development
• Student Advisory to Vice Provost
• Internal Development Committee
• Mandatory Student Fee Advisory Committee
• Game-Day Recycling Program
• Public Policy Undergraduate Curriculum Committee
• Community Service Website Committee
• GT Delegate to ACC Leadership Conference 2009
• GT Delegate to Vietnam Innovate Conference 2009
As the Undergraduate Student Body President, I will focus on major initiatives that will help Tech continue to develop into the leading academic and technological institute that it is capable of becoming. By advocating students’ voice, promoting progress and service, improving athletic ticketing, and reducing Tech’s environmental impact I will help improve the lives of students and address the needs of our campus. As President, I will:
• Work to improve the daily lives of students
• Mitigate the impact the state-wide budget crisis has on students
• Transition campus to single-stream recycling where everything you throw away gets recycled
• Install motion-sensor lighting to reduce GT’s energy consumption
• Work to implement a fair and efficient athletic ticketing system
• Create a Service Institute as a resource for service organizations and students
• Provide more service-learning courses for real-world application of your GT education
• Create new representative positions for student organizations in SGA
• Install Nextbus screens and improve predictability of bus routes
Vote Champlin for Student Body President!
Drive. Direction. Determination.
Robert McEntyre
www.robertmcentyre.com
• Vice President of Campus Affairs
• Campus Services Committee, Chairman
• House of Representatives, Member At Large
• Student Lobby Board
• Campus Affairs Board, Chairman
• Academic Advisory Board
• Ticketing Advisory Committee, Co-Chair
• Athletics and Recreational Services Committee
• Finding Common Ground Executive Board
• Management Student Advisory Board
• Kappa Alpha Order
The opportunity for students to set the vision for Tech has never been greater. As we usher in a new Institute President, we also usher in the chance to have students impact our institution in a profound way by defining the vision for Tech’s future. My vision consists of a Tech that engages students, inside and outside the classroom, one that embraces diversity, both culturally and intellectually, and one that maximizes the student experience and quality of life.
With this remarkable time come many incredible challenges. We have campus services that sometimes fail to meet our most basic needs. We have a Board of Regents calling for a “temporary” mandatory fee that threatens to be $1,000 outside of HOPE next fall. We have an academic climate that lacks diversity of thought, and lends itself to a faculty more concerned with research than addressing the students’ needs.
It is the duty of the SGA President to provide a strong voice for the students on these issues. Throughout my Tech and SGA career, I have been that strong voice and as Student Body President I’ll continue to be that strong voice. Here are some of the ways I want to make progress for you:
• Expand the Add/Drop period from 1 week to 2 weeks
• Fitness alternative to HPS 1040
• Automate HOPE applications year to year
• Expand Stingerette service to surrounding area
• Open Cherry Street to provide a safe travel option
• Improve Campus Safety through patrols and lighting
• Implementation of single sign-on Campus Portal
• Minimize campus construction impediments
• Implement new ticketing system that maintains block seating, efficiency, and integrity.
• New SGA website and hold open biweekly briefing
• End the Regents’ “Temporary Fee”
All of the candidates have articulated what we want to do, but I’m the only candidate who has put forward a plan and timetable for how I’m going to get things done for you. The plan of action that I’ve created will lay the foundation for an effective and successful year from the very first day in office, and I’m the candidate who has the experience necessary to lead SGA on that first day. I have been fighting for a better student experience throughout my entire career in SGA and as President I want to continue to fight for you.
Alina Staskevicius
www.voteforalina.com
Experience
• Vice-President of Administrative Affairs
• Junior & Sophomore Representative
• Joint Campus Organizations Committee
• Academic Affairs Committee
• freShGA
• Campus Experience
• Student Foundation Board of Trustees
• Presidents’ Council Governing Board
• Ambassadors
• Student Center Programs
• Sophomore Summit
• Athletic Association tutor
• Honors Program member
My Vision – “Growing Together”
I firmly believe that the traditions, friendships and student experiences we share enable us to grow as a community. My platform consists of improvements in key areas:
Academics
With state budget cuts restricting many of our campus services and departments, I want to focus on our academic policies by creating a “First week” policy similar to Dead Week’s, allowing students to view all their grades on Tsquare, and laying the foundation for a public speaking class.
Student Life
To strengthen our campus community, I want to lobby for more high profile speakers and artists on our campus and revive T-week (programming for seniors). To respond to your needs, I want to see the creation of a single campus portal, increase lighting on campus, and extend Buzzcard service to other stores.
Student Organizations
I am passionate about student involvement, and want to engage student organizations. Making sure student leaders are well-informed is one of my top priorities.
Student Government
Communication is essential – I want to make SGA more visible and accessible to you, and create an ongoing dialogue between SGA and students.
My Drive
I am passionate about Georgia Tech and its students. I am so proud to be a Yellow Jacket, and I understand Georgia Tech’s great potential – especially as we transition to new Institute leadership. My goal is for student opinion to always be sought and always be heard.
I am a strong voice for student organizations, a voice you can trust. You need a Student Body President with a bigger vision for the Institute, not just a list of things to do – and I am that candidate. Vote Alina!
Candidates for Undergraduate Executive Vice President
Brian-Paul Gude
www.gudeforvicepresident.com
Experience:
• Freshmen Class President
• Sophomore Class President
• Member of the Joint Finance Committee
• Member of the Internal Development Committee
• Member of the Planning & Development Committee
• Member of the Student Lobby Board
Accomplishments:
• Created the first scholarship offered by Student Government.
Hello, my name is Brian-Paul Gude and my goal in seeking your vote as Vice President of Student Government is simple. To show the student body that SGA can be more for you. Leadership that is more visible and active in discovering what the student body wants, a more organizational and student-driven SGA culture, and the pursuit of more initiatives inspired by anyone in the Tech community are a few examples of the “more” that I have outlined in my campaign. Every organization that we interact with and every student that we encounter should feel that not only can they come to SGA but that SGA is actively seeking their opinion on issues, concerns or innovative ideas.
As the leader of the legislative branch in SGA, the vice president oversees the Undergraduate House of Representatives (UHR). There are roughly 50 UHR positions in SGA, and as such, this is the most important part of student government that can affect you directly. I feel that the Vice President has the ability to create an SGA culture where every representative is not only encouraged to interact with the students but in some ways required to ensure that student opinion is heard throughout the year. I think this is the dividing line between SGA’s success with you and continuing student apathy regarding SGA.
What I want to do to ensure that you get more from your representatives, first and foremost, is to make them more visible to you. We can do this by assigning all representatives to organizations to ensure that organizations always know who to talk to for a bill submission or any other aspect of student government that they don’t understand, and to follow up on how they are doing with the service of SGA. Also, we need be more visible to students. I want to ensure that students meet and are able to ask questions with their representatives by creating a SGA task force comprised of different representatives and committee members once a week to gain insight on student concerns so that we can always be dealing with the most up-to-date student issues in our SGA committees and in the Legislative and Executive Branches.
Also, our meeting structure can change so that we serve students before ourselves. We can move all organizational and financial bills to the top of our agenda, in front of our own internal updates and briefings, in order to reduce the time that student organizations wait to be heard.
As a third-year IE major, I recognize that the need for new and exciting leadership in SGA is more important now than ever to ensure that SGA has the best and most profound impact on you. I have experience through various Student Government presidency positions, but most of all I have the passion to improve SGA’s impact on you to be that leader.
While this is only a snippet of what I stand for, I encourage you to delve into my website to gain a better understanding of who I am. Vote Gude and you will see effective change driven by you.
Parker Hancock
www.hancock4vp.com
Experience:
• SGA Parliamentarian
• ECE Representative
• Internal Development Chairman
• Homecoming Philanthropy Chair
• Director, The Veritas Forum
• Member, Student Reg. Committee
Achievements
• Joint Bill Policy
• Freshman Elections
• Executive Restructuring Act
Track Record
I’ve already been hard at work to improve how SGA functions and how we serve the student body. I’ve authored legislation that will allow for the first-ever fall freshman elections, letting freshmen for the first time ever to have a voice in student government. I’ve also authored a new Joint Bill Policy that has taken many of the snarls out of the SGA financial bill process, giving student organizations better access to Student Activity Fee Funds. My latest achievement has been the “Executive Restructuring Act” that will reorganize the Executive branch of SGA to improve communication between SGA and the student body. It will create a Vice President of Communications position whose sole responsibility will be to communicate what’s going on in SGA to campus, as well as to collect student ideas and feedback. All these initiatives together provide a track record of diligent service to the Tech student body.
Vision
The Executive Vice President also aids the President in addressing student life issues. Though my positions on student life issues are many, there are a few I’d like to address here.
First, the IT resources at Tech need some serious revamping. I’d like to see the campus portal initiative move forward, as well as to explore new resources, like making recordings of large lecture classes that are already available to students at the GT-Lorraine and GT-Savannah campuses available to us at the Atlanta campus. Also, the SGA website needs some serious work. One of my first priorities as Executive Vice President will be to ensure a fully functional SGA website will be up by the end of the fall semester.
The one part of my platform that I think most sets me apart, however, is what I’ve termed “Educational Diversity.” Tech has always been known for its great engineering programs, but I’d like to see it produce more than just engineers. I want to see it produce outstanding individuals who are not only exemplary engineers, but exemplary citizens of their nation and world. To that end I’d work to improve the undergraduate curriculum to provide more opportunities to explore topics outside of our declared majors to produce more well-rounded students. I’d love to see a Tech student be able to pursue their major and a minor and still graduate in four years. We also need more opportunities to discuss how what we engineer here fits into the larger mosaic of human society. I think this can be accomplished by embracing student-led initiatives like Finding Common Ground, the Campus Freethinkers or the Veritas Forum that are already providing these opportunities.
Why You Should Vote for Me
My track record of taking initiatives shows I have the drive to get things done for students, and my vision will help better prepare students to be the leaders of tomorrow. My track record of success and powerful vision for the future show that I am the best candidate for Executive Vice President!
Candidates for Graduate Student Body President
Linda Harley
No web site provided
Experience:
• Student Government Association (SGA) Graduate Student Body Executive Vice President 4/08 – Present.
• SGA Graduate Student Body Secretary 4/07 – 4/08.
• SGA Senator 8/06 – 4/07.
• Research Assistant (RA) 1/00 – 4/04.
• Teaching Assistant (TA) 8/05 – 8/08.
• RA 8/08 – Present.
• WRC Advisory Board 4/07 – 12/08.
On a cold winter morning, in January of 1999, I arrived in Atlanta from South Africa. With blue lips and teeth chattering I walked onto the Tech campus and was filled with a sense of adventure of what lay ahead. Now, ten years later, I can say that it has been an amazing experience. I am currently a fourth-year PhD candidate in the School of Applied Physiology, and ever since 2000 I have worked as a RA or TA at Tech. I have seized every opportunity and it has led me to where I am today.
As SGA Graduate Executive Vice President this past year, I oversaw the fall graduate picnic. Making the event a success required the ability to communicate and listen to the needs of graduate students, work with administrative staff, delegate the work and have dedication to the details. This year over 1800 graduate students and their families attended, setting a record. The event was a complete success.
This will be President Peterson’s first year at Tech, and as such we will have many opportunities to promote graduate student issues. As SGA Graduate Student Body President I will strive to:
1. Ensure that our money (Student Activity Fee) is spent wisely.
2. Ensure that our health care benefits remain adequate and comparable to that of our peer institutes.
3. Provide opportunities for professional development, so that you may be competitive in today’s job market.
4. Ensure that if the “temporary” student fee of $100 continues, a waiver is put in place for TA’s and RA’s or that it is added as tuition for graduate students.
In conclusion, when I am elected I will be the second female to hold the position of Tech Graduate Student Body President, making this a historic election. Vote Harley and I promise that together we will seize the opportunity to improve graduate student life on campus.
Rick McKeon
votemckeon.blogspot.com
Student Government Experience:
• Coordinating Officer
• Graduate Executive Board
• Graduate Senator
• Undergraduate Representative
• Committee of Academic Affairs
• Committee on Elections
• Student Academic Advisory Board
• Campus Recreation Center Advisory Board
• Athletic Board Ticketing Committee
• Housing Priorities Committee
• Parking & Transport. Advisory Board
Other Pertinent Experience:
• Vice President, RHA
• Graduate Resident Director, International House and Women, Science, and Technology Community
• Student Research Assistant, GTRI
• Intern, Georgia Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Georgia Governor’s Office of Policy, & Georgia Innovation Internship Vice-Chair, HOBY Maine
• Director of Programming, HOBY New York Central
• Facilitator, World Leadership Congress
• Delegate, National Youth Leadership Forum
Have you ever sat around waiting for a campus service? Did you wonder if you were the only one? Did you think of a solution that benefited not only you but every one else? Most of us have, and you pay more than $1,000 per semester enrolled for campus services to assist you.
I am running for Graduate President for two important reasons: to have more responsive campus services and resources as well as to improve the fractured system of campus communication and community.
I have plenty of experience in studies, research, student organizations, student government and state government. Still, this is not about me; it is about you!
We need to make the campus more sensitive to the needs of graduate students as we are a growing and vital part of the campus population. As incoming President Peterson is surveying the Institute and starts setting his agenda for the next few years I feel that it is vital to have a dedicated, skilled and experienced voice at the table highlighting our perspectives at the daily operations of the Institute.
You care about rising costs, decreasing services and difficulty of access. You can feel vulnerable or left out. I want to help you with appropriate stipends, adequate health insurance and reasonable fees.
You care about knowing people and feeling at home. We spend plenty of time trying to find people, places and resources from poor information and communication channels. We know our advisors and some members of our departments but cannot grasp a sense of campus community beyond home football game days. I want to centralize information about campus services and resources, allow for feedback on them, integrate and streamline campus communication channels, and work to bring people together to increase options and activities on campus.
It is unacceptable that those who hold positions now have not done more to inform the graduate student population about all that student government engages in. We are here to serve you and to interact with the administrators on your behalf to address concerns.
You being busy does not mean that you should not be informed and involved in our actions. I know that I will not vanish after the campaigning period. I will continue to reach out.
Your support will ensure efforts on your behalf. Feel free to e-mail me or view my campaign website for more detailed information. Thank you for your time.
Candidate for Graduate Executive Vice President
Justin Chapman
No web site provided
Experience:
• Graduate Senator
• Academic Affairs Committee
• Student Planning Association
First-year Masters candidate: College of Architecture City and Regional Planning Major.
We live in a time of great challenge, brought about most significantly by the changes occurring in the economic, but also social realms. Policy changes taking place at a blinding pace, affecting individual action at the global, national, state and local levels. Clearly, there will be implications that have an immediate impact on Tech, and on graduate students specifically. As a candidate for vice president, I seek to represent the principles of integrity, accountability and responsibility in helping student government meet the challenges presented.
By approaching tasks with an honest and forthright attitude, I will help to facilitate fair decisions, and increase the visibility of graduate student needs university-wide. Integrity also implies soundness and unity in action. I believe in the importance of these principles as they apply to individuals and groups such as the Graduate Senate. I will seek to ensure that the legislative process adheres to the principles inherent within the concept of integrity, such that the Senate acts as a unified body and produces sound choices.
As individuals within a group, each one of us has chosen to be accountable for our thoughts and beliefs, stepping up to be seen and heard. Participation in the decision-making processes that shape our experiences also means being accountable to those one represents.
I understand that a position such as vice president is not one of selfishness, but one that requires careful consideration of the complexities that can be involved in resolving issues. I would seek to assist student government in resolving such issues in the greater interests of the graduate body. The impetus to speak and be heard takes courage and strength, and I would hope to embody these traits in the role of vice president.
It must be acknowledged that a sense of responsibility is a guiding force behind the accountability that impels us to act. Each of our actions creates an effect that causes yet another decision. Given the delicate nature of our current climate, it is of utmost importance that each of us act with a sense of maturity and deference to the situation at hand.
Reliability and common sense should be the framework of responsible action. Not only is there a responsibility to others in general, but also as vice president there is a specific duty to assist the president in achieving clearly understood goals. In this role, I would do my best to support the president.
It is by these principles as standards that I seek the office of the vice president. If elected, I will use these notions to serve with student government in an effort to enhance the experience for the graduate body at Tech.