At the weekly EIU student senate meeting on Wednesday, the student senate heard the cases from three candidates for the vacant vice president of student affairs position.
The VPSA is charged with brainstorming ideas to present of the student senate and promote diversity and inclusion, said Student Body President Taylor Cloud.
“VPSA normally does things like Panther Palooza,” Cloud said. “They are the ones that are normally are those that get appointed and come and present to us to vote. They also run DAC which is the diversity action council.”
Speaker of the Senate Madison Veatch added that the VPSA also works with clubs and organizations that want to become registered student organizations.
The VPSA candidates were given five to seven minutes to present who they were, why they should be elected to the VPSA position and what they would do in the position.
Freshman family consumer science education major Mikey Collman was the first candidate to present his platform statement.
“I am quite interested in and quite passionate about the currently open VPSA position as the position works with new and upcoming RSOs which I have quite some experiences with,” Collman said.
During his high school years, Collman said, he was active in a career technical student organization– the high school version of our collegiate RSO.
In his CTSO, the family, career and community leaders of America, Collman served a term as vice president and president. During his senior year, Collman said he was one of five selected by his classmates to serve on the state board of FCCLA.
Collman talked to local Illinois state representatives and senators on behalf of career and technical education courses while in high school.
“The Illinois State Congress was slowly moving a bill that would take all CTE courses out of high school curriculum,” Collman said. “I had the opportunity this past spring to go to the state capital and sit down with local senators and representatives and advocate for CTE.”
“I would be comfortable with considering I have two social recognized minority titles, being a homosexual and of Hispanic descent,” Collman said.
Collman ended with a closing statement.
“I want to help myself and others achieve this great privilege opportunity,” he said.
Next up, student senator and chemistry major Preston Siewert presented his platform statement to the student senate.
Siewert attended Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield before arriving at Eastern. While there, he received his associate’s in sciences, an associate’s in arts and finished his gen-eds, he said.
Siewert also worked as a tutor.
“I helped students and advocated for them,” Siewert said.
As president of the Lincoln Land student government, Siewert said he advocated for mental health alongside other projects.
Siewert’s ideas for projects as VPSA include events to connect clubs, a club Olympics and more focus on mental health.
The final candidate to present a platform statement was student senator Mason Tegeler.
Tegeler is a sophomore, an honors student and a double major in political science and theater, he said.
As a current sitting student senator, Tegeler is on the alumni subcommittee and has previously served on the university enhancement committee.
“As VPSA, I plan on creating a new RSO night, which will be held each semester to help students get involved,” Tegeler said. “I would like to work with the student life office to streamline the processes in creating new RSOs.”
Tegeler wants to give more attention to Panther Palooza in a way that reaches students.
“Instead of just putting up our posters, we do a vlog, put that on Instagram, put that on Snapchat,” Tegeler said.
Tegeler also said he wants to highlight diversity on campus by hosting more multicultural events.
“As the most qualified, the most well integrated into this campus and the most experienced candidate, I plan to hit the ground running,” Tegeler said.
Student Body President Taylor Cloud will use the platform statements and opinions of the senate to pick the final candidate for VPSA.
The senate will vote yes or no on the selected VPSA at the next senate meeting. If the candidate gets a two thirds majority vote, they will win the seat.
Jason Coulombe can be reached at 581-2812 or at jmcoulombe@eiu.edu.
