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 3 is composed of students residing east of Annie Glidden Road and north of I-88, within DeKalb.

Senate Speaker Dillon Domke

Senior corporate communications major

Experience: Senator since fall 2012

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

“Obviously, I’ve been working a lot with the state budget and the lack of MAP grants right now – especially the MAP grant funding since there’s a quarter of the students at our university who receive that funding and potentially may not receive that next semester.”

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

“I’ve been the [SA Senate] Speaker for the past two years or so, so I think that’s greatly prepared me for it. I think being involved and knowing as many people as I do definitely contributes to that as well.”

Senator Brian Robinson

Senior accounting major

Experience: Senator since fall 2015

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

“I have a couple. So first, I’d like to address campus safety, with all the robberies and the shooting that occurred. I’d also like to improve the Huskie Safe Line. There are issues, and that’s definitely something I’d like to bring attention to. And also, the NIU notification system. Often times you get a lot of notifications about robberies, shootings and other things like that, but recently we had a couple instances where a couple robberies were fake but none of the students received notifications about that, and it was only in the Northern Star. I want to also make the student body aware of the importance of the Student Association. Me being a transfer student, didn’t find out about the SA until the end of my junior year. [Outreach] to the student body and making them more aware of the SA … and increase election turnout.”

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

“I am a transfer student. Since I’ve been at NIU, I’ve been involved in a lot different organizations: I’m in Black Male Initiative, Black Student Union and a student accountant association, [National Association of Black Accountants]. I’ve interned, so a lot my experience has given me the ability to adapt to different situations and perform well. So with that experience, I’ve been able to see the campus from different view points and that will allow me to serve well.”

Senator Troy Cappi

Junior biology major

Experience: Senator since fall 2014

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

“Along with many of my peers in district three, we know that safety is an issue. Not only is it in Greek Row, but on the main campus with a lot of robberies and issues such as that. So I think one of the main things we can do is increase lighting across all of the campus in poorly lit areas. I worked on this last year a lot, but I was trying to see if we could get one of those stations where you press the button and the police come immediately, but they weren’t fiscally responsive enough to go forward with it, so possibly try to find other alternatives for safety on our campus.”

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

“Well I am involved in a couple other organizations, and they’ve really allowed me to grow out of my shell a little bit and not feel afraid to speak [and] share my ideas with the senate.”

Senator Edward Selep

Junior business management major

Experience: Senator since fall 2015

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

“I really want to focus on getting other organizations involved and building a more cohesive working environment in each organization. And kind of building a relationship between the campus and all the groups so that we’re just one … together. Just being one of the top schools in the state.”

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

“I’m apart of other organizations that require a leadership position. I have served my fraternity as the treasurer. So I have some ins and outs on how organizations run. I’ve handled financial budgeting very well to deal with other personnel whether it be at a leadership position or if it comes from a general perspective. I feel like a lot of that has contributed to it.”

Senator Devin Joseph

Junior accounting major

Experience: Senator since fall 2014

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

“I think one big issue is safety on campus. I think we need to get better lighting for some of the streets here. They’re really dark, and when you’re walking down really late at night it — we’ve had a couple robberies in the past couple weeks.”

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

“It opened up a lot of doors with different organizations because while you’re on the senate you see a lot of organizations come up, different ways to get involved on campus. I’ve met a ton of people and made connections, and that just helped me a lot.”

District 3 senators Giuseppe Lagioia, Aaron Vasquez, Juan Guajardo, Kyle Paquin and Wesley Hines declined a request to comment.