Voting was held for Lawrence University Community Council President and Vice President through 8 p.m., Friday, Jan. 20.
This year’s election is expected to be a close race. The two candidates for president are Jake Woodford and Lorraine Skuta. The Vice Presidential candidates are Steven Stein, Austin Federa, Nicholas Paulson, Sam Clary and current Vice President Carl Byers.
The duties of the LUCC President include setting meeting agendas and running meetings, as well as authenticating any acts, orders or proceedings with a signature. More informally, the LUCC President must act as a public face for the organization.
The LUCC Vice President presides over general LUCC meetings in the absence of the President and acts as the chair of the Finance Committee. He or she also holds meetings designed to inform student organizations about how the LUCC budget and allocation process work. The Vice President should ideally empower student organizations to feel comfortable coming to LUCC with concerns or requests for funds.
There was a fairly large turnout of Lawrentians at the Candidates’ Forum last Wednesday, Jan. 11. At this event, each candidate introduced him or herself, gave an opening statement and answered questions volunteered by members of the student body and by each other.
The most heavily-discussed issue at the Forum was accessibility. The candidates universally expressed a concern that LUCC is often difficult for members of the general student body to approach. All the candidates had valuable plans for making changes in this area.
Skuta suggested changing the times of LUCC open forums so that they are accessible to as many students as possible, and Woodford offered to hold Presidential office hours in Kaplan’s Grill so that he would be easier to find and speak to.
Other issues raised included the much-discussed smoking legislation, candidates’ past experience and what each candidate would do to improve life at Lawrence even if they were not elected to their desired position.
LUCC meetings take place every other Monday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. in the Mead Witter Room on the second floor of the campus center. One of the main purposes of these meetings is to allow students to air their concerns and offer ideas on how to make Lawrence a better place for the students who live here.
Election results will be announced to the campus at large at the LUCC meeting on Monday, Jan. 23 at 4:30 p.m.