Student Association senators discuss how their involvement has readied them for their positions, as well as what improvements and issues they will focus on this semester.

District 2 is composed of students residing west of Annie Glidden Road and north of I-88 within DeKalb city limits.

Robert Kreml

Senior education major

Experience: Senator since fall 2014

What is an issue on campus you’d like to address this semester?

“I just want to work on getting the campus more involved with the SA, getting them involved in what’s going on in the SA and getting them involved with the elections. Making sure … people are just aware of what we do and what are our mission statement is and how we as an SA can provide services to students.”

How has your involvement prepared you to serve on the SA Senate?

“I was a senator last year and I was the deputy speaker, so I pretty much have experience going into that at that aspect. As well as I was a community advisor for two years before that, and I was also involved with the [Residence Hall Association] and the hall councils. So I have had a lot of leadership roles. I think all of them culminate because I have a lot of different facets of the community now, and I kind of represent the constituency that way. I’m more knowledgable about what they want. And the other thing is I’m not a traditional senator in that I’m not a [political science] major. I’m more into just helping the community, just making sure of that the students are aware of what’s going on.”

Rachel Gorsuch

Senior political science major

Experience: Senator since fall 2014

What is an issue on campus you’d like to address this semester?

“An issue I think we need to address this semester is legislation and the budgetary issues going on at the state level.”

How has you involvement prepared you to serve on the SA Senate?

“This is my second term as an SA senator, so I think my experience with the Student Association, both serving as a senator and a part of the Board of Elections, … has really helped prepare me for my second term.”

Anurag Singh

Operations management and information systems graduate student

Experience: Senator since fall 2015

What is an issue on campus you’d like to address this semester?

“The issues I’d like to address is to get my peers in the graduate college more involved. They don’t know many things that are going on at the college, like the different associations, the different communities. They mostly study here and they limit to that domain, so with this I’d like to get knowledge regarding the different associations so that I can deliver this knowledge to them as well.”

How has your involvement prepared you to serve on the SA Senate?

“Firstly, I’d like to say that … the different kinds of rules and regulations [have] helped me a lot to get to know the process.”

Brittanie Fourte

Junior political science major

Experience: Senator since fall 2015

What is an issue on campus you’d like to address this semester?

“… Somebody brought up a really good point about the lights on Greek row — how it’s not really lit up like it should be. It’s really dark for people to be walking around, and I know it’s a place where people like to party on the weekends, and with it being dark and the campus not being as safe as of right now with all the things going on — all the robberies — and I just feel like it should be a bit more lit up.”

How has your involvement prepared you to serve on the SA Senate?

“Actually, this will be my first organization that I’ll be involved in on campus, so already with me going to [my] first meeting, I just know that I will get the most experience that I need about campus life, like in terms of leadership and helping the students out, student involvement.”

Timothy Brandner

Post-baccalaureate philosophy major

Experience: Senator since fall 2015

What is an issue on campus you’d like to address this semester?

“… Student rights. I’ve already spoken with people, like [SA Senate Speaker] Dillon Domke for example, first of all about different committees a senator can sit on in terms of the Student Code of Conduct because I personally have noticed that the university … [likes] to be very lax with the rules that they are supposed to follow to the point there will be situations where they will have a week to file a complaint against a student … it might happen three, four weeks later, sometimes even longer. … It’s a direct violation of a student’s rights, and there are plenty of places that list these rights, and these people are supposed to follow them. And yet there are plenty administrators in the university who like to just ignore the fact those rules exist.”

How has your involvement prepared you to serve on the SA Senate?

“I was the 2012-2013 president of the Residence Hall Association. … I’ve presented, at one point, Housing and Dining’s $45 million budget to the Board of Trustees. Myself and [then-director Michael Stang] presented it together. … I’ve personally done a lot with different constitutions and bylaws here on campus. When I was in RHA, I piloted and wrote the first-ever draft of the all-hall constitution. I made a dozen different amendments to the bylaws. I was previously nationally certified as a parliamentarian, so I know a lot about procedures. …”

Bethany Vanover

Sophomore political science major

Experience: Senator since spring 2015

What is an issue on campus you’d like to address this semester?

“I really want to address the MAP Grant funding. I want to get into contact with whoever I can, and especially when [Gov. Bruce Rauner] comes to visit, if I can talk to him, I want to talk to him, but I doubt I’ll be able to. But I want to represent my constituents there, anyone that may or may not get MAP Grant funding.”

How has your involvement prepared you to serve on the SA Senate?

“Last year I served as the administrative vice president for [New Residence Hall] council, so that got me into governing documents and I found that I really really have a passion for that, not just student governing documents, but also the United States governing documents, as well as the state’s. That made me really want to work on those.”

Senators Jaleel Turner-McDonald, Christian Johnson, Demone Williams, and Rebecca Dominguez did not respond to requests for comment.