Future cabinet reveals aspirations

March 12th, 2010 | By Carolin Scholz | Section: News

Last week the Grinnell College student body elected next year’s Student Government Association executive cabinet members. Ben Offenberg ’11, Graciela Guzman ’11 and Liting Cong ’11 will respectively fill the positions of President, Vice President for Student Affairs (VPSA) and Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) for the 2010-2011 academic year.
The three newly elected cabinet members had their first meeting last weekend to talk about such basics as cabinet selection.
The remaining cabinet positions are those of Films Chair, Concerts Chair, Service Coordinator, Assistant Treasurer and All Campus Events Coordinator, which will be selected by the new executives .
“The cabinet is to some extent hierarchical, but even more than that it’s collaborative,” Guzman said. “This should definitely be continued.”
“We will basically keep the procedure implemented last year and choose the Administrative Coordinator [AC] first,” said Offenberg, who served as Vice President for Student Affairs this year. This allows candidates for AC to apply for other positions in time, in case they will not be chosen as AC. The applications for this position are due this coming Sunday. But SGA plans on having their full cabinet byApril, according to Offenberg.
While next year’s cabinet is not complete yet, Guzman, Offenberg and Cong already have concrete plans on what they want their administration to look like.
“I want SGA to run smoothly next year,” Offenberg said, “and continue increasing SGAs visibility.”
Apart from continuing and possibly improving SGA’s visibility and accessibility Offenberg also has more definite plans that he would like to see happen.
“I’d like to see a greater commitment to social justice, one of our core values,” Offenburg said. He not only wants to increase funding for social justice internships, but also for the various issues that take place on campus. Something that Offenberg hopes to achieve using all-campus e-mails is encouraging students to apply for roles in student government.
Guzman hopes to give a voice to underrepresented communities, her platform for VPSA.
“I want to advocate for students and student groups not advocated for in the past,” Guzman said. “I want to directly influence student life in aspects such as residence, climate, dining. There is a lot of work to be done, a lot of students just don’t feel safe or part of the community.”
Cong wants to improve the academic part of Grinnell, while Guzman views the need to revamp the social atmosphere of the campus.
“I want to work directly with administrators, faculty and staff to reduce stress and make the workload more manageable,” Cong said. “Hopefully, I will work with CDO, alumni council and academic departments to increase the career and graduate school support for students—secure our future after Grinnell.” More definite plans include working with A-Just to expand the Peer-to-Peer Education program and reducing transcript processing cost.