Newly elected DSG President junior Craig Carter (left)
and Vice President Katie Kondry (right) pose in a campaign photo.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KATIE KONDRY
New DePauw University Student Government officers are ready to get the ball rolling for next semester.
Newly elected Student Body President, Craig Carter and Vice President Katie Kondry are looking forward to a smooth transition between last year’s officers and the newly elected cabinet members. With Carter and Kondry at the helm, DSG is planning to make many changes. Carter plans to work with the strengths of his cabinet, understand their weaknesses and he is ready to adjust on the fly.
“I think it is going to be actually a really smooth transition, the current officers such as Cody and Courtney they have been helping very much in this process,” Carter said.
Kondry also has confidence in the newly elected executive board.
“We have a couple of returning key players, I know Perrin Duncan…will be a key player on the exec board this year. We also expect to have some returning senators such as Mary Ann Etling…and the duo of Charlie Douglas and Claire Halffield,” Kondry said.
The sole new face to the executive board is Anna Gawlik. Gawlik has not been part of DSG before, but is a former representative for an organization. Gawlik is excited to serve on the executive board as Vice President of Student Life and is looking to form unity between organizations at DePauw.
“I would like to help foster a community where we can continue the dialogue about diversity and inclusion while encouraging students to take an active role in being a part of a stronger, more unified campus,” Gawlik said.
The elected senators for the sophomore class are Griffin Botts, Mary Ann Etling, Patrick O’Malley, Erika Killion and Kathryn Whalley. The senators for the senior class are Hannah Viti, Melissa Guerrero and Marcus Dozier. As for the junior class, Perrin Duncan ran but was instead elected as Vice President of Academic Life, which removed her as the option for junior class senator.
Due to the large number of juniors planning to spend time off campus and the senate being a full-year commitment, no juniors were elected to the senate.
To address the lack of junior senators, the student government wrote legislation that would allow juniors to serve for one semester on a split ticket. The amendment was passed this last week.
In the past, candidates were only able to serve for an entire academic year. The new amendment serves to accomodate the many students who spend part of their junior year off campus whether that be fufilling an internship requirement or studying abroad.
Charlie Douglas is a rising junior looking to continue to serve on DSG under this new amendment. Due to the timing of this amendment, no juniors were elected to senate positions but the current and new executive boards are working to appoint senator pairs for next year.
“This is extremely useful to those who plan on studying abroad, have an internship or just generally only want to work for one semester,” Douglas said.
Kondry hopes that this amendment will help retain some of the leadership and talent on student government as they take on their goals for next year.
DSG is looking to have junior appointments completed by this weekend in order to have everyone inaugurated on Sunday and come together for a retreat next week to get everyone on board and up to speed.
Over the summer, Carter is looking to put legislation on President Casey’s desk that will yield general improvements to campus. One of the big things on Carter’s agenda is to push for the reallocation of parking spaces from the faculty to the student body. He is also looking to continue work with Code T.E.A.L and Green Dot.
In the upcoming year, Kondry would like to work with Duncan to create an academic cabinet that would bring together all majors as well as honors and fellows programs to better understand and communicate with the administration the wants and needs of students.
Carter and Kondry would also like to see President Casey address the student body with updates about university plans such as the 20-20 Plan, the Campus Inclusion Plan and other efforts from the Hubbard Center.
Kondry sees an update from the administration as necessary.
“One of our big item agendas is to try and get President Casey to host a state of the university address. We think that it has been quite a few years now since he has addressed the student body all as one.”