By Benjamin Strawbridge
Staff Writer
March 1, 2018
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As February turns to March, the UNH election season has begun to heat up with new announcements concerning a number of potential candidates for both the undergraduate and graduate student senates.
On the undergraduate side, Campus Structure Chair Ethan McClanahan and SAFC Chair Jake Adams are the first to officially declare their candidacies for the offices of next year’s student body president and vice president, respectively, according to a Feb. 26 email obtained by The New Hampshire.
In their announcement, the two stated that, if elected, their overarching objective would be to “go beyond our current efforts” to “better” campus life for students and promising to “address the myriad of issues,” ranging from student housing and infrastructure to campus-wide sustainability and diversity, with five years of combined experience between them in student government.
When asked to further describe the motives and reasons for running for student body vice president, Adams said in a Feb. 27 interview that he feels that students “have not really been getting the answers that they deserve from the administration a lot of the time.”
Adams also labeled obstacles and issues with transparency from administration on a number of problems, such as the COLA lecturer controversy, as “roadblocks” that require removal to allow a greater flow of information and understanding between UNH administration and the student body.
McClanahan, who is seeking the student body presidency, added to his running mate’s comments, promising as student body president to urge the administration, on issues such as the lecturer cuts, to “let [students] know these decisions are being made and why they’re being made,” and that the “campaign” behavior and vigor of their ticket, such as in their efforts to visit student organizations and hall councils across campus to pitch their platform, would “continue” after the election if they win.
In terms of other potential tickets, current Student Body President Carly Rotenberg, per a Feb. 27 email, does not presently have the full list of who has declared their candidacies for President in Student Senate. Rotenberg stated that she is “pretty sure that there are a couple of tickets running,” and that they have until March 5 to obtain the proper number of signatures to be eligible candidates.
In Graduate Student Senate, the elections and chances to run for the assembly’s executive positions, which include the graduate senate speaker and president, among other roles, are currently open, according to Graduate Senate Communications Director Jacob Bennett, who is presently seeking the office of External Relations Officer, in a Feb. 27 phone interview.
“…Under the [University System of New Hampshire] bylaws, there is a rotation among the schools of the system so that every few years UNH has a voting member on the Board of Trustees,” said Bennett as he described his reason for running, adding that since UNH will be a voting member on the Board for the next two years, he hopes to use his position as External Relations Officer, should he win, to “have the opportunity to sit with students from those other campuses” to represent issues from the perspective of graduate students in Durham and Manchester and to have the “ability to have a discussion about how that vote is cast” for the benefit of students.
As of March 1, per Bennett, current Graduate Student Senate President Jovana Milosavljevic-Ardeljan is running for the position of vice president, which is presently held by Jin Lee, with Jordan Coulombe seeking to succeed Milosavljevic-Ardeljan as President.
In addition, Financial Affairs Officer Andrea Jilling and Community Coordinator Myles Lynch are both seeking reelection, while an unidentified candidate is running for Bennett’s communications director position.
According to Bennett, the graduate elections opened on Feb. 26, and students can presently vote online through WildcatLink’s Graduate Senate page. The elections will last two weeks until March 9.
Originally published in The New Hampshire in Vol. 107, No. 19, on Mar. 1, 2018.