Election Results Leave High Hopes for Student Government

Election Results Leave High Hopes for Student Government

Earlier this week the election for the executive board for Student Government took place, with Danny Reeves being elected president, Sydney Packard as treasurer for her second term, Will Hargrove as speaker of the house and Maia Kennedy as secretary.

Each candidate had strong platforms and ambitions for the 2018-2019 school year, and we urge each of them to remain committed to these platforms and to enact change and improvements next year.

We strongly believe that Student Government needs to be transparent and communicative with the Student Body about its accomplishments and actions.

Much of what Student Government does is behind the scenes work that is not always visible to students, leaving many unaware and unsure of what Student Government actually accomplishes. We urge our newly-elected executive officers to change this next year, to provide more clarity and certainty as to what our representatives are doing.

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We also push for more communication between the student body, Student Government and the Administration at all levels. We should all be working together to have productive dialogue about issues that Wake Forest students and the community face.

The Student Government officials should be the ones to moderate these discussions and be the body that connects the students to the administration.

Additionally, we believe that the new executive board has the capability to enact real change, and push each of them to stay motivated to do so.

During the campaigns, many candidates brought up the idea of Organizational Medical Amnesty, and we hope that Reeves, having served on the Alcohol Coalition, pushes for this during his tenure as president.

This will push students to make the right decisions and get help instead of making situations worse by trying to get as far away from trouble as possible. Students should not be afraid to seek help; it should be their first thought.

Throughout the election campaigns, we were also impressed that many platforms included mental health and diversity and inclusion. These are topics that are prevalent on Wake Forest’s campus, and we are intrigued to see where Reeves will take the demographic survey results he included in his platform.

Mental health is something that many students deal with on a daily basis, so we urge the executive board to continue to improve Mental health services on campus.

Reeves, during his tenure as secretary, enacted structural change to Student Government, so we believe he can do the same in 2018-2019.

Moreover, students should have more platforms for their voices to be heard. One aspect of Kennedy’s campaign that we want to see next year is more of the reverse townhalls she has been a participant in in the past. She held Student Government’s first reverse town hall this year. We would also like to see her implement fellow candidate Thomas Kellogg’s commitment to holding senators accountable.

Each of the newly-elected students has proven that they have big ideas and ambition, and we are eager to see the implementation of these ideas next year.

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