The executive positions on the Waynesburg University Student Senate have been decided, and they were in fact decided before the actual elections took place.
In what became more of a required formality, the students who ran for the exeutive positions ran unopposed, much to the chagrin of Executive Vice President Tyler McCoy, who was responsible for running the elections. In the Student Senate’s constitution, it outlines that whoever is in the position of executive vice president is above everyone else on matters that deal with elections.
“It felt useless in a way, and it was just a formality and we had to do it,” said McCoy. “It felt odd, but it was just something we had to do. We knew what the outcome would be.”
The Student Senate president for next year will be senior Nick Cordova, who has participated in the organization since his arrival on campus.
Although Cordova felt a little disheartened at the lack of competition, he did note that the process was much easier for him because he is studying abroad.
“It was somewhat anticlimactic to learn that I was running unopposed, but it also made my life easier because I did not have to coordinate a campaign from across the ocean,” said Cordova, who will be a junior next year.
Regardless of the unopposed path to the president of the Student Senate, Cordova feels experienced and knowledgable enough in the organization to make a positive impact.
“My three semesters of service in the Student Senate make me a qualified candidate,” said Cordova. “During that time I authored and coauthored multiple pieces of legislation and observed how the Senate functions. I believe that I am now ready to move into a role on the executive board.”
Freshman T.J. Denofrio will be taking over as McCoy’s replacement, who decided not to run for an executive position, but a Senator position.
“I plan to study abroad next spring, so I didn’t want to take a position with responsibility and then leave,” said McCoy. “So actually, right now, I’m just running for a regular Senate position in the current election that’s going on.”
Nevertheless, Denofrio is excited to be joining the executive staff, and he already has some plans for what he wants implemented in the future.
“I believe that the general Senate is good, and I encourage a lot of people to go out and be in the Senate; it’s a good way to get a voice on campus,” said Denofrio. “But at the same time you don’t have a lot of power, so the executive board is a good way if you want to change the Senate, you have to be on the executive board; they’re the ones that are charge of doing a lot of things, and they have a lot of voice.”
For example, Denofrio is already looking at some election reform, and he wants to examine these positions to see if there’s any that the Senate may want to cut or combine.
“This year was not a contested election,” said Denofrio. “Anyone who wanted to be on executive board, such as myself, we got in. That’s good for us, but that’s probably not a good thing in general because it’s showing that we don’t have as much interest as we’re hoping.”
While Denofrio believes the Senate should look to cut back on positions, McCoy believes Student Senate needs to figure out why the organization may be a turn-off to some students.
“I think the lack of candidates really presented a challenge for the Senate to ask why people aren’t as interested in running,” said McCoy. “We’re here to serve the students. So I think it raises a major question, the lack of candidates, how we’re serving the students and whether we should take a hard look at what we’re doing and if we’re fulfilling our duties or not.”
Other members elected to the executive board included Olivia Schultz-Falandes for secretary and Lauren Harvey for treasurer.
There are no current juniors running for senior Senate positions; however, there is one undisclosed person running a write-in campaign. Voting ended on Wednesday and results will be likely be announced at some point next week.