Ten California Baptist University freshmen ran Sept. 24–28 for the Senate of the Associated Students of California Baptist University for the 2018-19 school year and four students were elected.
The new senators elected for ASCBU Senate are: Allison Weaver, English major, Pablo Leiva, architecture major, Kaitlyn Chadwick and Richard Hamilton, bio-medical majors.
These students come from an array of backgrounds in student government in high school.
Weaver was active with her student government all throughout her four years of high school and served as student class president for three years, including her senior year.
Weaver said she enjoys leadership and hopes to create bonds with her classmates and fellow ASCBU senators.
“I knew going into my freshman year at CBU that I wanted to be a part of ASCBU. So once I got additional information about the program itself, I went on to make sure that I would try my best to get elected,” Weaver said.
“I enjoy serving in leadership and I wanted to be plugged in on campus.”
The primary job of senators is to effectively represent the respective class by appropriately addressing student needs, issues and concerns.
Encouraging class-member participation, serving as an advocate for the class and seeking input from class members during meetings is also part of the job.
“My overall goal as senator is to be aware of my class’s needs and make sure I fulfill every need that can be met,” Weaver said. “I want their freshman year to be fun and enjoyable.”
The elections were organized and run by Katie Leong, executive vice president for
communications, and Selina Torres, vice president of operations for ASCBU.
“This is a really exciting and busy time for our office,” Leong said. “We are so excited to see the freshmen get involved.”
Projects are already underway with ASCBU as the semester kicks into high gear.
“We are excited to be serving the undergraduate student body this year. We have a great team, which includes both returners and new members, who are already completing new projects,” Leong said. “We would love to hear from students if they have things they want to see to make their college experience that much better.”
Another new senator, Richard Hamilton, said he was so excited he was elected that he accidentally scared one of his friends.
“When I saw that I had received the email with the results I got anxious and wanted to immediately open it but at the same time didn’t want to because I might not have won,” Hamilton said. “But then I opened the email and saw that I had won I yelled out loud in victory in the library.” Hamilton’s decision to run was largely because of his passion for leadership.
“I decided to run for senate because I love student leadership,” Hamilton said. “I was involved in my high school’s leadership and I loved it and I love this school so I wanted to combine the two.”
Both Hamilton and Weaver are hoping to stay with ASCBU throughout their years at CBU.
Other responsibilities include: meeting once a week for updates and serving a mini- mum of three hours a week in- side the ASCBU office.
The Senate elections for freshmen representatives are held every fall semester to give students interested in running time to get to know the school.
Students vote through an online portal called Votenet that ASCBU uses to calculate votes fairly for every election.
Students interested in running for future elections, or who have any questions, can contact Leong at ASCBU Communications@calbaptist.edu or can stop by the office located at the Lancer Plaza daily between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.
