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The 97th Student Government Executive Cabinet Appointees were vetted Wednesday by the SG Appointments Committee. The purpose of the meeting was to review the appointments, verify a fair selection process and make sure the appointees are prepared for final votes and confirmations by the Senate next week.
The Appointments Committee is composed of student senators Samantha Chan, a sophomore studying political science, Adam Schmidt, a sophomore studying first-year engineering, and Zac Lentz, a graduate student studying biological and agricultural engineering.
Chan said the purpose of the Appointments committee is to make sure the Executive Cabinet selection process was done according to Student Government rules, and that candidates know what to expect.
“We’re here to make sure the process was fair, because Senate won’t see everything and all the interviews,” Chan said. “We are probably going to make applications open for them to view however.”
The Appointments Committee also serves to prep nominees, let them know what to expect and help them prepare for the final steps.
“We’re the middle step between the cabinet getting appointed and the Senate,” Schmidt said.
Each appointee met with the committee for 10 minutes. During this time, appointees were asked questions regarding their goals for their respective positions and why they chose to apply. Among those interviewed was J Hallen, a senior studying business administration and recommended for diversity outreach director.
“It’s very easy to sit up in a little high castle and be like ‘well I think a certain population on this campus want this,’” Hallen said. “But it’s a completely other thing to actually go there and talk to those populations and make sure we’re representing them in the best way possible.”
Hallen also felt that some of the most underrepresented students on campus are Native American, LGBT and disabled students, and wants to ensure the department reaches out to these communities and make sure their voices are heard.
“In terms of disabled students, especially in terms of mobility-related disability, I feel that there has been a lot of talking for these students rather than actually outreach to these students,” Hallen said.
Isabella Lee, a junior studying political science and recommendation for traditions co-director, also spoke on expanding to underrepresented populations with her recommended counterpart, Madison Teeter, a sophomore studying political science.
“Madison and I are definitely looking to expand more to graduate students and being able to talk to them a lot more and see what kind of needs they have,” Lee said. “I don’t want to advocate for a certain event if they feel like it’s just for undergrads and then not get that response and have them in attendance.”
Teeter and Lee also spoke on increasing Campout attendance and expanding on a strong foundation that has been laid by previous co-directors.
“We’ve done a lot of thinking about Campout since our numbers have gone down,” Teeter said. “We want that to be a more successful event like it used to be a couple years ago.”
Teeter and Lee hope to accomplish this by focusing the event back toward basketball, especially since the Primetime event was deemed a favorite by students.
“A really great foundation of what could be has been laid, and I really think Madison and I can improve on that,” Lee said.
Lee also spoke on improving NC State student body attendance to Traditions events.
“I would really love to have the student body engaged in Traditions more in general,” Lee said. “Traditions are really important to me, and I want them to be important to the student body as well. I want students to love NC State and show their passion by doing Traditions and continuing them here.”
Dalton Clark, a junior studying political science, recommended for government relations director, said he had three primary goals for the upcoming year.
“There’s three things I want to do: help people, be kind and work hard,” Clark said. “If I can do those three things and extend some governmental knowledge to the students at NC State at the same time, then I feel I’ve done a good job over the next year.”
The nominees for the 2017-2018 Student Government Executive Cabinet will be voted on and confirmed during the Student Senate Meeting April 26. During the meeting, nominees will give a short 90-second speech regarding their background and goals for their respective positions. Afterwards, Student Senate will debate and vote on each nominee.