A total of eight students came to The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board seeking endorsements for Student Council representative from the College of Arts and Sciences, with an additional student seeking an endorsement for the Engineering School Student Council representative position. Of these candidates, the Board elected to endorse seven individuals — six from the College of Arts and Sciences and one from the Engineering School. We have chosen to endorse Matthew Foreman, Omar Metwally, Ally Kammerman, Isabella Liu, Aneesha Goodala and Hunter Wagenaar from the College and Shivani Saboo from the Engineering School. These candidates exemplified clear goals for future policy and a true desire to represent their constituency in the best manner possible.
The College of Arts and Science incumbents — Foreman, Metwally and Kammerman — expressed insightful visions for their futures in Student Council. In his platform, Foreman supports implementing a wider range of ethnic classes that are available to students, especially in the Latinx community. Metwally plans to reorganize current structures within Student Council, such as putting money and lobbying efforts behind passed legislation, increasing outreach to other organizations and doing away with large discretionary funding for executive uses. Kammerman, one the longest serving representatives seeking reelection, desires to increase community involvement by getting to know the student body, increasing outreach and attending contracted independent organization meetings.
A three time representative for the Engineering School, Saboo also possesses the experience and initiative to continue making progress in the role. Saboo’s platform rests on increasing minority representation and involvement within Student Council, as there appears to be a current disconnect between the general student body and the governing body.
The current first year representatives — Liu and Goodala — expressed a diverse plan of initiatives and an abundance of excitement to begin working on them. Liu’s platform includes plans to focus on student wellness by ensuring funding for initiatives such as free menstrual products. She also desires to increase support for marginalized groups in the community. Goodala, in her interview, expressed concern regarding Title IX changes that force students to login to NetBadge, taking away anonymous reporting. She also plans to increase communication between representatives and the student body.
Though, Wagenaar would be new to a representative position, he is familiar with the inner-workings of Student Council, as he has served as the vice chair of outreach. He is running on a platform that includes rolling out gender-neutral first-year housing and reviving the Student Health Advisory Board.
We believe all these candidates have the vision and policies to continue the important work of moving the University forward by making it a more accessible and equitable place for all students.
The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board is composed of the Executive Editor, the Editor-in-Chief, the two Opinion Editors and their Senior Associate. The board can be reached at eb@cavalierdaily.com.
The Cavalier Daily Editorial Board offers commentary on local and national issues as they relate to the University community. In line with its mission, the board conducted endorsement interviews for candidates seeking election to Student Council, the Honor Committee and the University Judiciary Committee. To qualify for an endorsement, candidates were required to be running in a contested election. The board has endorsed a total of 18 candidates for this spring’s student elections.
The board will be withholding its endorsement for Student Council President until after the Cavalier Daily and University Board of Elections' Student Council presidential debate on Monday, Feb. 25.
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