StuCo Presidential Candidate Q&A: Bella Edo, Bancroft Hall

Why do you want to be StuCo president?

I’ve been a member of Student Council for the past two years and I want to continue my involvement. I think Student Council is one of the few places on this campus we as students have the ability to enact real change in this community and I want to be the driving force behind that change. 

What are the ideal qualities of the StuCo president and why do you think you fulfill these ideals?

Ideally, the StuCo president would be someone who is compassionate and willing to negotiate and compromise. I think the president also needs to be someone who understands how much time and effort goes into being the president and is prepared to make sacrifices for that. But, above all, I think the president needs to be a leader. Obviously being a leader applies to things like running meetings or keeping track of the work the committees are doing, but I think more so it means being someone who has the ability to bring the people around them together to achieve a common goal.

What policies do you hope to implement? Why?

If it doesn’t change this year, I’d really like to make sure we continue to adjust the current visitations policy so it is one that instills equality around campus. I’d like to focus on the possibility of senior boarders having the privilege to drive with senior day students (with parental permission) among other senior privileges such as a true senior skip day. Lastly, I still think it is unclear on this campus what resources and support we have not only from the Health Center, but also from Student Listeners and proctors too. I want to make everyone aware of how available that information is. I also would like to make more information available about the details of the ASAP program, Med Leave and other programs of support on campus because I don’t believe everyone understands the purposes of these programs and what it means to be in them. Overall, I think the most important thing for StuCo to do is create the change that students are passionate about, so I would be completely open to any and all ideas of what people would like to see changed on campus.

Do you have any comments about the outgoing administration?

I think the outgoing administration has done a good job this year, however my only criticisms would be I don’t think the people that joke around in StuCo and are disruptive have been reprimanded enough which I think has led them to believe it’s acceptable to act the way they do. I also believe we took too long this year to select a focus. We didn’t decide to make the visitations policy what we wanted to address until almost halfway through the winter term and although we did other smaller projects before that, it didn’t really seem like we honed in on anything until pretty late in the year. I think as a council we should be using all the time we have to do as much as we can which means picking what we’re going to concentrate on relatively early in the year.

What distinguishes you from the other candidates?

One thing that distinguishes me from the other candidates is my experience in a position of leadership in StuCo. I’m currently one of the co-heads of the Rec committee, so I’ve had a lot of experience this year organizing events and communicating with faculty as well as students. Being apart of many teams on this campus and interacting with all different kinds of people has taught me how to be a team player and I think that’s a skill that’s hard to come by. Part of the reason I’ve been able to thrive on teams is my ability to communicate with other people. I think I do a good job of empathizing with people and making them feel understood and heard which, at times, can require having a lot of patience and being able to compromise. I understand what it means to see someone else’s point of view, even when you don’t necessarily agree, which is something not all people are willing or able to do.