All students nominated to the Student Federation officer positions for next year were nominated without opposition at the governing body’s regularly scheduled meeting Nov. 1.
There was only one person nominated for each position and the 2013 officers were decided by the end of the meeting.
Junior David Wilhelmsen, nominated for Student Fed president, said that while there has been less contention in Student Fed since he was a freshman, the lack of competition in the races was “really weird.”
“That’s a first,” Wilhelmsen said. “It shows that Student Fed has gotten along even better this year than last year.”
The vice president nominee, Daniel Teal said he felt “calm jubilation” about his nomination. He said he was surprised to be the only nominee, but stated there was a small pool of eligible candidates.
To run for president, you must have served two years on Student Fed according to the Student Fed constitution. Also, representatives such as Meredith Caton and Andrew Reuss were nominated for different positions, but they will be studying off-campus next semester and thus are not eligible.
Wilhelmsen is currently the treasurer of Student Fed. Chelsea Goodale, junior and nominee for treasurer, said she enjoyed working with him on the finance committee.
“[Wilhelmsen] takes [his job] seriously, but not too seriously,” Goodale said, “And Daniel is very detail-oriented, so it’s a good balance.”
As president, Wilhelmsen said he wants to focus on practical tasks such as building volleyball courts, but also wants to continue the mission of the current student federation president, senior Esther Ashmore. He said she has tried to bring more of the student body into the affairs of Student Fed.
“Last year’s board did an awesome job and I want to continue that legacy,” Wilhelmsen said. “The nominees are already really great leaders on campus.”
Despite their differences, all four nominees share a common bond — they are four juniors and all Greeks. Wilhelmsen is in Alpha Tau Omega, Teal part of Sigma Chi, Goodale is a Chi Omega and Price is in Pi Beta Phi.
“I hope it doesn’t affect anything and I don’t think it necessarily will. The executive board doesn’t really vote,” Ashmore said.
She said that it may change the emphasis and there could be a temptation for the Greeks to focus on proposals that benefit other Greeks, but she said the same could be said about her bias toward Hillsdale Christian Fellowship.
She also said that the executives being Greek should not be the point, but rather their intention should be to represent the students at large.
“Being in the Greek system is supposed to be an extracurricular — just like being on Student Fed,” Ashmore said.
Junior class representative Viktor Rozsa, who works on the finance committee, said he is familiar with all of the new executives and respects them as leaders.
While a large portion of Student Federation’s money does go to Greek programs, Rozsa said that it should because the Greeks are the ones running many of the events. He said he does not believe an entire Greek Student Fed represents any conflict of interest.
“I think it is unfortunate there was no election, though,” Rozsa said, “just for the excitement.”
