Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
Hello my fellow Swarthmoreans,
My name is Kimberly St. Julian and I am a freshman running for Student Events Advisor. I will not bore you with countless promises that are unrealistic, or cram my entire resume into this platform. I feel that student council needs more fresh faces and ideas, a better connection with the student body, and an events advisor who is willing to think outside of the box. As Student Events Advisor I will work within the SAC budget to fund events that benefit the Swarthmore Community as a whole. I feel that this is very important if we want to build a truly diverse campus.
I have four goals in mind to guide me if I am elected:
To cut down on the hoops that students have to jump through to get funding and receive refunds for the money that have spent by working with the SBC and SAC.
To listen to what the students want in events and what they want to get out of events by creating an open blog for students to voice their opinions.
To have more involvement in events and planning by advertising in the Swarthmore newspapers and with flyers around campus so those who want to be involved can.
To continue to have events such as Qdoba lunch days, to keep students satisfied and excited about being at Swarthmore.
I have only been here at Swarthmore for three months but I am ready and willing to dive into this head first and gain as much experience as possible. I am open to new ideas and suggestions and happy to work with others to get things done. We need to create more events and avenues for recreation during the week and on the weekends to keep life from being humdrum and repetitious. Why not have more movie nights and parties throughout the week? I believe that if the student body has a chance to voice their opinions and tell the elusive committees what they want, work will be done and more of us will be satisfied. How many students are unhappy or dissatisfied with social life on campus? How many of us have actually voiced our opinions about it? This lack of communication is a problem that I hope to alleviate by opening the lines of communication between Student Council, the SAC, and the Swarthmore students.
As for my resume, I will only cover a couple of things that I have done as a member of groups in high school as an example of my experience. At my high school I was president of the Music Honor Society and we were able to have two marching band dinners with full catering, marching band group outings, and we organized and fundraised enough money so the band could go on a cruise this year. I cannot claim full credit for these accomplishments because I had help from other band members and I worked with the band to see what they wanted and to find ways to get it.
As for my time at Swarthmore, I am currently a staff reporter for the Daily Gazette, a member of the Swarthmore Mock Trial team, and Peaslee Debate Society.
Swarthmore students I am one of you and I want to help us have a better and more fulfilling social life at Swarthmore while we learn here together.
If you have any questions, concerns, or opinions I am open to them and more than happy to speak to you about them. Please email me at candidatesforchange08@gmail.com
"To have more involvement in events and planning by advertising in the Swarthmore newspapers and with flyers around campus so those who want to be involved can." Errrr– RE: advertising in the Swarthmore newspapers… I can imagine you can get some sweet deals from the DG due to your connex, but The Phoenix has historically opposed offering free advertising that isn't in-house (apart from articles/the whim of the Living and Arts editor in the weekly Editor's Picks section). I can't imagine you're going to spend StuCo money buying picas by the inch in The Phoenix… what would you be interested in doing on this front?
Otherwise, nothing snarky to say to you–good job on having one of the few platforms that actually begin to resemble a platform. And I mean that mostly without irony. A+!
Yves—I think Student Council pays The Phoenix $25,000. I'm sure that some of this could be used to pay for advertising.
Anyone who wants more qdoba gets my vote.
I find it funny that you refer to the Qdoba days and the other candidate says she brought those about. How do you know what that is if you are a freshman?
Swattie: Only in the same way that StuCo "gives" SBC money to every group. I'm not sure if I'd be 100% comfortable with StuCo micromanaging The Phoenix's SBC fund allocation to suit its own agenda (however innocuous that agenda may be!). Perhaps the funding for StuCo's silly self-promotional flier (do they still even do that?) can be used for some discounted ad space, hah.
(To be honest, as I implied, I think there's enough "advertising" of student events in The Phoenix as is–Editor's Picks & then stories on every little play and theme month and such, ja.)
@k, I actually did research on past events that have happened at Swarthmore and it seemed that the students really responded to the Qdoba days and other food days. I believe my opponent deserves credit for bringing Qdoba to Swarthmore last year, it was a really good idea that I would like to build upon.