by Erin Turner | Apr 6, 2015 | News Slider
From water bottle stations, to the cost of summer tuition at Lipscomb, the 2015-2016 Student Government Association candidates covered a variety of topics at the Presidential Debate Monday night in Shamblin Theater. Moderator Madeline Smith opened up the night by asking the senatorial candidates funny questions that were Tweeted out by audience members. Vice Presidential candidates Ezra Fritz, Lauren Gardiner, Hannah Passamonte, Jackson Smith and David Villacorta took the stage to share their ideas for the coming school year. The presidential portion of the debate began with a series of questions. Q: “If you could implement one major policy change at Lipscomb what would it be? A: Presidential candidate Julia Allen said she would change the way that tuition works. “I would like to see fixed tuition — for Lipscomb students to be able to stay for all four years,” Allen said. A: Presidential candidate Margaret Rox said she would also like to see a tuition lock for current students. “If we can’t have a tuition lock, I would at least like to see people’s scholarship increase with the tuition,” Rox said. While tuition increases each each, Rox said that scholarships don’t. She said that it would be more fair for scholarships to follow the same trend as rising tuition. A: Presidential candidate Jordan Beale said she is passionate about Lipscomb’s community, and she said she believes housing is a big part of the community. “I’d really like to see some greater opportunities for upperclassmen here on campus — maybe have more open dorm hours, a little bit more autonomy on those choices, a little bit more openness to moving off campus,” Beale said. Q: “What...
by Erin Turner | Apr 6, 2015 | Opinion
Open Letter to the Student Body: My name is Jackson Smith, and I am running for Vice President of the Student Government Association for the 2015-2016 school year. I am a sophomore Financial Management major from Troy, Tennessee. Qualifications: I have served as a member of the SGA for the past two years, aside from a semester that I spent abroad. Here I have really learned how Lipscomb’s student government functions and have found my place in it. I feel that I now understand the system enough to take leadership and help further Lipscomb’s student body in any way I am called to. Involvement on campus has always been a passion of mine, and the diversity of that involvement is something that I bring to the table in SGA. I am a part of Lipscomb’s Greek Life, the Quest Team and I work for the Admission’s department, but I also am involved in Lipscomb’s jazz and wind ensembles and work a lot with the Athletics Department as well. I believe that these areas of involvement allow me to come in contact with more students than the average person at Lipscomb; therefore, this exposes me to the opinions, complaints and praises of the student body, which can help me to make decisions in the SGA that are the best fit for the people. My ability to make logical decisions based on a very open-minded perspective is an attribute that makes me a great candidate for Vice President. I have always been the kind of person that strives to look at every perspective when making choices. I have used this rationing...
by Erin Turner | Apr 4, 2015 | Opinion
Open Letter to the Student Body: Hey, everyone! My name is Hannah Passamonte, and I am a junior Business Management major from Maui, Hawaii. I am honored to be running for Vice President of the Student Government Association for the upcoming school year. I want to be your next Vice President because I am passionate about people and Lipscomb. I am committed to serving and advocating for the student body and believe that my personality and skill set allow me to do this best in a leadership position on SGA. I am qualified. I am active in Student Government and other campus student groups, which has allowed me to gain a greater understanding of what is required of an SGA executive and what it means to represent the diversity of our student body. A leader on SGA must be able to represent this school on a large scale, and I feel that I am best fit to do so. My goal since freshman year has been to get involved on campus and to surround myself with many different types of students. I have succeeded in doing this, and I am determined to represent this university not as one major, social club, sports team or school stereotype, but as a whole; because I believe it is our different interests, personalities and opinions that matter and should be portrayed. Having worked for Lipscomb Admissions and as a member of the Presidential Ambassador Council, I enjoy meeting with and am very comfortable approaching those who work in administration. We need SGA executives that are well-connected and trusted by administration in order to...
by Erin Turner | Apr 4, 2015 | Opinion
Open Letter to the Student Body: My name is Lauren Gardiner, and I am running for Vice President of the Student Government Association 2015-2016. I am a Sophomore Informatics major with a Business concentration from Lexington, Kentucky. I strongly believe that my vision, passion, drive and skill make me the best fit to serve as your SGA Vice President this next year. Qualifications: When I came to Lipscomb, the one thing I knew I wanted to get involved in was SGA. Due to a debilitating illness in high school, I did not have a good high school experience, so I knew I wanted to use my leadership skills to not only give myself an incredible college experience, but my classmates as well. My time in SGA so far has made this dream come true, and I want to continue this work and take it to the next level. These past two years, I have been honored to serve on SGA, work on both the social and communication committees and help revamp our constitution. I strongly believe that my knowledge of SGA, coupled with my management experience and passion for people, has provided me with the best skill set to lead SGA and make the Lipscomb student experience even better. If Elected: A major project that SGA started working on last year was the issue of having to pay to get credit for summer internships. I have a strong desire to see this change because I believe experiential learning opportunities should be encouraged to help develop our student body. A main goal, if elected Vice President, would be to continue...
by Erin Turner | Apr 4, 2015 | Opinion
Open Letter to the Student Body: My name is Ezra Fritz, and I am running for Vice President of the Student Government Association 2015-2016. I am a junior Mechanical Engineering major from Kingston Springs, Tennessee. Having had the privilege of serving on SGA during these past two years, and having had the trust placed in me by the SGA executives to serve as Communications Committee Chair this past academic year; I believe I have both the leadership experience and the drive to make a good Vice President, and to bring strong and competent leadership to SGA. This will ensure that we get projects accomplished that you, the students, raise your voice about and care about deeply. One potential problem that I noticed as Communications Chair and have worked to lessen, was that there seems to be somewhat of a disconnect between SGA and the student body; and I would be honored if I could continue my work of helping to bridge that gap, as the next Vice President. One example of the many small projects my Communications Committee undertook this year to aid in creating good communication was to create a place online where you can go and see a profile picture, some information and a contact email for every member of SGA. We created the “Meet-Your-SGA” tab on our SGA webpage so that you can get directly into contact with any one of your representatives, as well as the SGA executives if you have a question, comment or concern. I also helped to organize the information tables as well as our survey, both of which have given many...
