By Matthew Muir | Staff Writer, Video by Sarah Gill | Broadcast Reporter
Baylor Student Government candidates running for Student Body President, External Vice President and Internal Vice President discussed their platforms during debates released Monday by Lariat TV News as they prepare for student voting this week.
The Internal Vice President presides over the Student Senate and coordinates between Student Government’s legislative branch and Baylor’s internal affairs. The Internal Vice President also oversees the disbursement of the Student Government Allocation Fund. Birmingham, Ala. Sophomore Piper Latham and The Woodlands junior Matt Cole are running for this position.
Candidates were asked how they would bridge the gap between students voices and the Baylor administration. Latham said she wants to make sure students are actively engaged and have every opportunity to share their ideas.
“I think the first step to that is I actually have to go to students and hear what their ideas are. I think student government a lot of times does really well on the administration side … but ultimately our role is to engage the students,” Latham said. “Student Government currently does things like polling on Fountain Mall and sending out surveys and I want to increase that, I want people to feel like they can walk right into my office and tell me any idea that they have so when I do meet with administration I will know students’ concerns and I will know the changes they want to see on campus.”
Cole said he specifically wants to reach out to groups which are underrepresented in Student Government to get the “full picture” of the student body’s needs.
“In my three years of Senate one of the biggest problems that I have seen is that the population of people who are actually able to lead as senators is not representative of the population of people around our campus and the people that have things that they want to see happen around campus … The main think I want to do as IVP is fix this,” Cole said. “This directly means listening to students and asking people who are not represented in the Senate, being active about asking them what they want to see happen, because if all we have are the people who are fortunate enough to be elected senators, if all we have are their voices, we’re never going to have the full picture.”
The Student Body President, External Vice President and Internal Vice President debates can be found in full on the Baylor Lariat Youtube channel.
