No Candidates Mean One Less Senator for Senior Class

by Peter Kaspari

The United States government wasn’t the only entity holding midterm elections this year – last week SGA held their own midterms to fill four vacant seats being left open in three different classes.

 This election will go down in Simpson’s history as being one of the few in which no candidates ran for a vacant office.

 That office, which will be left vacant in the spring when senior senator Mark Meier will be studying abroad in Germany, apparently drew no interest from anybody in the current senior class.

 “No one ran in the election, and that position will not be filled,” said Macy Koch, senior and student body president. “If someone does express interest in running and comes to us, we will hold a special election for them.”

 Koch said that this year had an unusual amount of vacancies when compared to previous years.

 “Usually there are at least one or two people leaving, but four is a lot,” Koch said. “Although it’s nice because it allows people who may have been too to run in the fall to have a chance to serve.”

 Meier’s seat is just one vacancy that needed to be filled.

Freshman senator Kimberly Kurimski decided not to serve for another semester, and junior senators Emily Van Roekel and Janine Kobylinski stepped down as well. Van Roekel, according to Koch, will be working on a research project, and Kobylinski will be studying in Washington, D.C. Unlike the senior seat, the others have been filled by freshman Dillon Thiner and juniors Kaleb Livingston and Maddy McAreavy.

Koch said that new faces on SGA are nice to have, but it may present a challenge if they’ve never served in student government before.

“If they haven’t had experience, it can take awhile to get adjusted and comfortable to be able to address administrators about big items,” Koch said. “It’s similar to when we get freshmen.”

Livingston said that he decided to run for SGA so that his opinion could be heard.

“There (has) been a lot of negative views of Simpson and SGA, and I thought there needed to be another voice to fix the problems,” Livingston said.

Livingston, who is currently a member of Simpson’s football team, said he believes he can bring a lot to SGA.

“I’m not afraid to speak my mind, and I feel I can represent a group that’s not very well represented,” Livingston said. “I feel like I’m not your typical senator. I don’t hang out with the same crowd so I’m a little different.”

McAreavy was inspired to run after reading about SGA’s budget and how they’re looking for ways of spending the money.

“I’m a very positive person and I like to inform people,” McAreavy said. “I feel like I can help spread what SGA does.”

McAreavy said that she’s looking forward to helping the Simpson community be informed about what is happening, especially regarding the upcoming changes to Simpson’s curriculum.

“I feel the student body, myself included, isn’t really aware of what is going to happen,” McAreavy said.

Koch said that she is looking forward to working with the new group of senators.

“They all seem like great candidates,” Koch said. “I am sad that we’re losing our current senators. They were all excellent senators, but it’ll be nice to have fresh opinions.”