Student Senate elections are this week.
As is customary for The Post during Student Senate election season, our top editors considered the candidates for next year’s executive positions and have compiled who we think would best represent students’ views.
These endorsements are independent of The Post’s news coverage.
We ultimately decided the candidates who are best for each position are not part of a single ticket.
Our decision is based on the Post’s senate debate, news coverage of the election season and interviews with each tickets’ executive candidates (with the exception of Phoenix’s treasurer candidate, who could not make an interview scheduled on short notice).
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The Post endorses Tony Piccioni of Phoenix for president because of his ambition to achieve short-term programs that would help students balance the expenses of obtaining a college degree. We also like his willingness to work with administrators to achieve his goals.
Piccioni recognizes, in line with his ticket’s stance, that many students struggle to pay for even the smallest things, including textbooks. He plans to compile a database of e-book resources for students to offset the costs of purchasing books.
He also wants to change some aspects of off-campus living by working with the Joint Police Advisory Council to move the time students have to pick up their trash to avoid fines from early in the morning to later in the day.
Piccioni’s goals align with the concerns of the student body and its senate representatives.
We call on senate, if Piccioni is elected, to embrace his leadership and vision though he has no prior senate experience.
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The Post endorses Ellenore Holbrook of Student Nation for vice president because she is well-connected with groups with varying ideologies on campus. She would be able to communicate with campus organizations that might not agree — a vital skill for a senate executive.
Holbrook, as with the rest of the Student Nation ticket, wants to increase communication among senate, city council and law enforcement, as well as improve student safety by adding more foot and bike patrols Uptown.
She also wants to work with student representatives at Ohio’s other public universities to help influence legislation related to college affordability — a task she has demonstrated the ability to accomplish. Her willingness to work with candidates on other tickets also makes her valuable in this position, should another presidential candidate be elected.
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The Post endorses Charlotte Klimovich of Student Nation for treasurer because we think she has a good grasp on Student Activities Commission (SAC) funding. She has the ability to make students understand the university’s finances while maintaining a professional relationship with administrators.
Klimovich said in her ticket’s endorsement interview that if elected, she would seek to get senate to agree on monetary decisions, so it can use funding to best benefit students. She also said she would aim to make finances less “terrifying” for students. We think she has the ability to accomplish both goals.
We think Student Nation’s presidential candidate Ben Mathes has good points about increasing senate’s influence on legislators in Columbus. Mathes can be an integral part of senate as the governmental affairs commissioner, his current role. He has already proven he can take student concerns about college affordability to Statehouse representatives.
We also believe the SOS ticket’s treasurer, Hannah Clouser, is capable of the treasurer position, and we look forward to her working closely with Klimovich, should Klimovich be elected.
BARE also has sound policy objectives, and its candidates are sincere in respect to this university and community. Their passion for the Ohio University Student Union is both a pro and a con with regard to elected office: Their faithfulness toward the union shows how well BARE’s executive candidates can commit to a cause, but we’re worried the loyalty they have for the union could overshadow the allegiance owed to students who vote them into senate positions.
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Student Union has an important role to play in student empowerment and advancement here in Athens. It’s great at mobilizing students and getting them organized. Senate is to represent the student body to top OU administrators in an official capacity, and the body has serious due-diligence obligations with regard to distributing SAC funding. We want the lines between senate and the union to be clear as both work together for the betterment of all students here on the bricks. That is why we are not endorsing a BARE candidate for an executive position. However, we think their opinions are valid and, if our endorsed candidates were to be elected into office, we hope they’d consult with Ryant Taylor, Olivia Wallace and DJ Amireh regularly.
We hope our message is clear: Each of senate’s executive candidates bring unique and impressive qualifications to the table. We hope they work together to best address the interests and concerns of the student body.
— Mathes is a former Post reporter, Taylor is a former Post columnist and Wallace is a former Post photographer.
This endorsement represents the majority opinion of The Post’s executive editors.
