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St. Cloud State University
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Students select senators
Seasoned senators offer Student Government the voice of experience
By Jake Zisla
Published:
Thursday, December 5, 2002
Dan Martinez
Tiffany Hill
Stephan Bulawski
Leo Lipnik
Becky Rothmeier
The results are in after last week’s student government election and SCSU has six new college senators for spring term.
Representing the College of Fine Arts and Humanities will be Dionico Diaz Jr. and Becky Rothmeier. The College of Science and Engineering will be represented by Stephen Bulawski and Tiffany Hill, while Dan Martinez will be the senator for the College of Social Sciences and Leo Lipinski will represent the College of Business. All the senators are seniors except for Hill, who is a junior.
Rothmeier and Diaz are both incumbents for the College of Fine Arts and Humanities senatorship. Rothmeier said she wanted to keep communication lines open between student government and the student body, while Diaz said last week that he “could be the voice for the students.”
Lipnik, also an incumbent, has cited his ability to remain unbiased and take every issue seriously, while Martinez, a candidate for vice president last year with Gordie Loewen, said last week that he will “work on better student services and on diversity issues on campus.”
Bulawski, who has been a senator for the College of Science and Engineering for the last year, said he plans to continue to work on the issues he has been working on. “I have always fought for the best interests of students, and always will,” he said.
Hill is the only newcomer to student government. “I want to get involved and I have knowledge about the College of Science and Engineering,” Hill said last week. Hill beat out incumbent Brett Frodl for the position, which was the only contested spot in this election.
College senators are required to be members of at least one standing committee, as well as a member of a university committee.
The committees include Student Services, Fee Allocation, Campus Affairs, Legislative Affairs, Cultural Diversity, Constitutional Review, Urban Affairs, Academic Affairs and Public Relations.
Additionally, college senators hold office hours throughout the semester and meet with the deans of their colleges four times each semester to address the concerns of the department and the students.
Desiree Westby, Student Government vice-president and Election Committee chair, expressed confidence in the new crop of college senators.
“All the senators except for one are returning members and they’ve done a lot of great work here already,” said Westby. “This next semester is just going to reinforce that.”
Student Government allows two senators to represent each college, so openings are still available. The College of Business and the College of Social Sciences currently each have only one senator. The College of Education has none.
Westby hopes to have the positions filled by January, when Student Government will be holding internal elections.
Students who wish to run for college senator need to fill out an application before the day of elections, which are held at the first meeting of every month. Applications are available in the student government office.
