The Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) announced the general assembly representatives for the 2013-2014 academic year. From the class of 2014, Scott Elias, Mary Diaz, Nicki Softness, and Jason Shatz were re-elected. From the class of 2015, Jacob Musinsky, Grant Tanenbaum, Glenn Cantave, Mansoor Alam, and Justin Gitlin were re-elected and Matan Koplin-Green was elected for the first time. From the class of 2016, Kate Cullen, Lily Herman, Ellen Paik, Martin Malabanan, Alton Wang, Angus McLean were re-elected.

The election for the class of 2016 was the only contested election, with nine candidates vying for the six slots, whereas the elections for the classes of 2014 and 2015 had only four and six candidates, respectively. The Argus sat down with the six winning WSA candidates from the class of 2016 to discuss their future goals and reasons for running.

The Argus: Why did you decide to run for the WSA, and what issues do you want to focus on during your term as a representative?

Kate Cullen: I decided to run for WSA this term because it was a way to be directly involved with the school and student body. I loved being involved [with] residential life, student health, and other things within student affairs. Currently, I’m working on the reformation of [the] Residential Advisor position, sexual health education, sexual harassment prevention, and basically making our campus more united. Hopefully, being on the WSA continues to be great for me, and I hope this term goes smoothly.

Lily Herman: This past year, I worked on issues mainly regarding academic affairs, such as the institution of academic minors and cohort building within departments. I’m also working on developing a better cooperative relationship between peer advisors and tutors, so that students could have more resources available to them. Lastly, I’ve been involved with reforming Orientation. This way, freshmen will be less confused upon entering Wesleyan.

Martin Malabanan: I decided to re run because I think one year as a WSA representative was not enough time to accomplish my goals for this school. Last term, I worked on transparency and provided assistance in the career center. During this term, I plan to work on Wesleyan’s dining services, transportation availability, and sustainability. Overall, I’m excited to remain in the WSA because I had such a great experience, and my main priority is to finish what I started and accomplish more.

Angus McLean: This semester, I started working on a fossil fuel divestment campaign. A good way to proceed with this movement was to pass a student resolution. This was one of the main reasons I joined the WSA in the first place. Also, I’m involved with issues regarding dining services. I didn’t finish up everything I hoped to do during my last term, but I plan to during my upcoming one.

Ellen Paik: I decided to rerun because I felt like there was unfinished work I wanted to complete. I co-founded a student group called Wes-to-Wes with a fellow member on the WSA. The initiative of this group is to raise funds for financial aid. This group tries to save money through sustainability and transporting those funds to financial aid funds. Hopefully, I could do more work with this, get involved with more projects, and continue receiving updates about issues on campus during my upcoming term.

Alton Wang: I wanted to continue the work I’ve done this year so far, especially with the Community Outreach Committee (COCO). I want to raise awareness on issues regarding diversity inclusion, social justice, school spirit, fragmentation on campus, and Middletown relations. COCO focuses on these issues, and I have worked on this during my last term on the WSA. During my upcoming term, I want to work on including and informing the student body on these issues through COCO. I want to give students the resources needed to achieve their goals as well, and I want to help bridge gaps between student groups, the student body, and the WSA.