SGA announces election candidates

This year, the race for Barnard Student Government Association president will be spanning continents.

On Friday, the SGA released a list of candidates for the upcoming elections, with Vice President of Communications Katie Palillo, BC ’10, going head-to-head with Karen Kwan, BC ’10 and SGA director of technology, for president. Kwan has been spending her junior year abroad, and is now in Greece.

In platforms released this weekend, Palillo outlined broad plans for increased communication between students, the council, and administrators, while Kwan listed several specific areas in which she would like to push for improvement, especially in the use of space and technological advancements.

“Being away, I have gained new perspective on SGA. It needs to increase its transparency and reach out more to the student body,” Kwan said. She underlined her previous involvement in initiatives that ranged “from opening the Reid gate on weekends to moving L-course sign-up online.”

Kwan said she would advocate for campus-wide wireless Internet access, expanded online course reviews and class sign-ups, and a review of the Nine Ways of Knowing requirements. Palillo put more of a premium on continuing a tradition of town halls and student meetings, although she did say that it would be particularly important this year to further initiatives to help students through financially volatile times.

“Let’s initiate a program to help our fellow students in this economic climate, through fundraisers and projects with the administration,” Palillo wrote.

Palillo said that as a former representative to other councils and McIntosh Activities Council (McAC) chairperson, she would stay committed to Barnard traditions that she helped facilitate during her time as chair.

The races for other executive board positions are generally two-person races with the exception of the vice president of communications slot, which has three contenders. And with the exception of the sophomore class president race, the presidential class elections are uncontested.
The representative for university programming, representative to Columbia College Student Council and General Studies Student Council, and senior and junior class treasurer positions currently have no candidates.

The positions without any candidates will be filled during the SGA appointments process, current SGA President Sarah Besnoff, BC ’09, said, which will follow the elections. During the process, applications for the positions are sent to the Barnard student body, and candidates recommended by the appointments committee are voted on in the representative council.

For candidates running from abroad, an on-campus proxy campaigns on their behalf during the election period, including giving the candidates’ speeches and submitting campaign materials. “Campaigning from abroad has become more prevalent and easier,” Besnoff wrote in an e-mail, pointing to Facebook and YouTube as non-traditional tools for candidate campaigns. Kwan is one of three candidates running from abroad.

Representative Council Elections Candidates Forum will be held Wednesday with class council elections forums following on Sunday. Voting will open on April 5 and close April 8, and results will be released on the following Wednesday.