After a lively, controversial election last spring, the ineffable executive duo of the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA), Micah Feiring ’11 and Ben Firke ’12 have established a campus reputation as energetic, enthusiastic policymakers. As the year begins and the WSA meetings commence, the pair look forward to enacting the plans they built their largely successful campaign platform upon, while acknowledging the bad taste left in many students’ mouths after last spring.

Feiring and Firke claim they are committed to making major changes in the quality of students’ lives on campus and are developing new initiatives in the vein of last years’ programs that will keep the student body moving quickly, caffeinated, and economically conscious as they come to fruition this Fall.

“This semester I will encourage WSA members to continue to bring real changes to Wesleyan,” said Feiring in an email to the Argus, “I want to see more proposals like the bike Co-op, Student-Run Café, and the Green Fund. I want to be a personal resource for any student who has a good idea and the follow-through to realize a goal.”

New WSA projects this semester seek to make a major impact on campus life, with programs involved in academics, dining services, and the pair’s campaign commitment to financial aid. Over the summer, the WSA worked to create a faculty and class evaluation website similar to Ratemyprofessor.com named Prof-it.org. Upon its completion, hopefully in time for pre-registration for the winter semester, Prof-it will offer students the ability to rate and describe courses and teachers specifically for their classmates at the University, and will be fully integrated into Wesmaps.

Other major goals that Feiring and Firke have outlined for this semester include improving and progressing pre-existing campus institutions, specifically the newly formed Green Fund and University Financial Aid. The Green Fund was approved by the WSA and voted on by the student body last semester. Each student pays $30 each year to the campus-wide Green Fund (although students can opt-out of participating through their online portfolios) and the resources are distributed to different sustainability efforts on campus.

“We’re very focused on the Green Fund this semester,” Firke said. “We’re finding cheap ways to reduce waste on campus, investigating funding for alternative energy, and looking into running a composting program. The new bike share program we initiated last year should also be up and running within the month, which we hope should cut down on the use of fossil fuels on campus.”

The dynamic duo has also decided to focus on cleaning up the financial aid process this year. Both noted that much effort is wasted on bureaucratic paperwork when it could easily be accessible online.  A committee composed of students and Financial Aid administrators was created last year to reevaluate the financial aid process.

“We are taking a new evaluation of the University’s financial aid and looking at ways where we can simplify the process and put more of it online and off of paper,” Firke explained. “The one thing we want to see happen is a website where students could calculate financial information at one site and predict how much they could get. We want to have a more transparent process for financial aid. There is a lot of confusion with the system. This is nothing that is inherent to Wesleyan but it’s inherent to how the system works.”

As Feiring and Firke planned for the upcoming semester, they also reflected on the end of last year and the election that won them the office they currently hold.

“One of the benefits of the really intense campaign in my opinion is that the campus really got to see that the WSA matters and people are passionate about it,” Firke said. “We put the WSA in the people’s minds and I think a lot of people thought about the WSA the first time in their Wesleyan career. I got to talk to basically the entire student body and I got to learn what people are passionate about.”

Feiring agreed that the high voter turn out reflected the hard work that all of the candidates put into the election.

“Last year was the first time in Wesleyan history that over fifty percent of the campus voted in the WSA election,” Feiring said. “My greatest regret is that not every student voted. The more students vote, the more empowered the WSA is to advocate for change on behalf of the student body.”

Yet Firke explains that he could understand why many students were upset by the way the campaigns were handled last semester.

“Each person has a different comfort level with elections,” Firke said. “Some people don’t mind getting flyers in the mail or having people knock on their door. Other people feel bothered by that. In an election outside of Wesleyan, if the guy you don’t want to win actually wins, you don’t see him eating at lunch everyday. In a small community, by campaigning as close as we did, I think that that brings more tension and anxiety for everyone.”

Firke explained that there are several things he would have changed about last semester’s election.

“I didn’t get into this because I wanted to get lots of votes or shake lots of hands,” Firke said. “I really don’t want to become a politician, I never meant to do that. Now people will see me and refer to me as Mr. Vice President. This is the thing that makes me really uncomfortable because I don’t see myself as being different or better than any other student. Being the V.P. of the WSA is like being the captain of a team or a member of second stage. On such a small campus, people confuse you with what you do.”

Feiring and Firke hope to have better communication with the student body in the future, whether this comes in the form of more all-campus forums or a continued conversation between the WSA and student body.

“I am looking forward to helping WSA members as well as students find ways to improve our University community,” Feiring said. “No project should be considered too large or too small. In the past, the WSA has been very policy oriented. I plan to continue our policy work but also make sure we are engaging student groups and making material changes.”

Firke agreed that it is time to look to the future and plan for the upcoming semester.

 “There is a lot ahead of us and I think its time that we talk to the student body and do a good job,” Firke said. “We really do care about our jobs. The WSA is more than Micah or myself, or anyone on the WSA. It’s something that belongs to everyone.”