Starting at midnight on Friday, Dec. 6th, polls will open for members of the Hamilton College student body to vote for next year’s Student Assembly (SA) President and Vice-Presidents. Currently on the ballot are Tommy Keith ’22, running for President, and Eric Kopp ’22 and Bryce Febres ’22, who are splitting the Vice-Presidency in the fall and spring semesters, respectively. The three sophomores are running on a platform that tackles what they perceive to be the issues most important to the student body as a whole, including climate change and sustainability, greater access to physical and mental health resources and social spaces on campus, and holding the administration accountable for allegations of sexual misconduct.

As current members of SA, all three candidates spoke to the importance of promoting productive relationships between students and members of SA.

Kopp is particularly focused on this aspect of their platform, saying, “In regards to being more transparent, I think it is very important that Student Assembly is approachable. I would want to move the meeting from Sadove to the Red Pit, encouraging more people to come and feel comfortable watching and interacting with us at our Assembly.”

Febres agreed, stating, “Going forward, to promote transparency, we will not only hold ourselves accountable with the distribution of information regarding our initiatives and decisions, but we will also push for the same from the administration. I want to promote a positive relationship between students and administration founded in solution-oriented dialogue rather than reactionary impulse.”

Besides greater transparency between SA, the student body, and the administration, the candidates also share a common goal of promoting unification and identity within class years. Keith notes that one of his main objectives is implementing more “campus-wide and class-year specific Hamilton events in order to create a greater sense of class and school solidarity, promote an inclusive campus environment, and have students socialize with peers they otherwise would not.” He believes these events will contribute to “a more inclusive and connected Hamilton community.”

The three candidates also shared their passion for student government and their desires to continue representing the Hamilton student body. Keith states that he “decided to get involved in Student Assembly because I wanted to serve my fellow Hamilton students and make tangible changes to student life.”

He also credits SA with providing him “an avenue to make change in a way that both challenges me and allows me to serve my peers.”

For Febres, SA “was the best way to have access to the personnel necessary to make a difference in initiatives I found to be important to my peers.”

Overall, the three candidates say they are unified on a platform of key issues and seek to promote greater transparency with the administration while strengthening existing relationships.