After a tight race and competitive campaign, James Lonergan was elected as the new Student Trustee in campus elections last Friday. Lonergan won with 289 votes against Annika Kasetter, who had 280 votes. The overall voter turnout percentage was 28.5 percent.
The Student Trustee position was created to facilitate communication between the students and Board of Trustees of Colorado College. One of Lonergan’s main goals as Student Trustee is to educate the student body on what the Board does. He believes that it is important for students to have the ability to speak with the Board and vice-versa.
“I ran because I saw it as an opportunity to make a difference,” said Longeran. “I am also on the President’s Council and I noticed a disconnect in communication between the board and the student body.” As Student Trustee, Lonergan believes that he can bridge this gap.
Lonergan saw the campaign process as a lot of fun and a great experience because he had never run for a position before. “To spread the word, I emailed clubs I was in, made posters, and posted on Facebook,” said Longeran. “My girlfriend painted different posters; really any way I could get the word out about the election.”
During the campaign process, he spoke with his peers about the upcoming election, and found that people seemed to be very receptive and relayed that they were planning on voting.
Lonergan was surprised by the low voter turnout because of the amount of effort he felt both Annika Kasetter and he had put into campaigning and raising awareness of the process. “People who did vote were informed about the candidates and really knew the issues that were important to them,” Lonergan stated.
He felt positively about the debate, relaying that the turnout was large considering the length of the event, which lasted about 90 minutes.
Lonergan viewed the debate as more of a public interview. “I focused on my point of view and what I wanted to get done,” Lonergan said. “I found that exchanging our ideas was a lot of fun.”
Lonergan believes he will be successful at representing the student body because he is excited about the job, committed to trying very hard, and is deeply involved in the school.
He is looking forward to the opportunity to attend various clubs and listen to diverse points of view among the student body. Through attending different club meetings, Lonergan believes he will be opening different lines of communication.
“The platform of my campaign was two-way communication, and I have a couple different ideas in how to execute it,” explains Longeran. “In addition, I welcome student ideas in how to achieve this.”
He referenced the upcoming Board of Trustee Open Question Session this Friday morning at 7:30 as one way in which communication can be established. He also hopes to create an email account for student inquiries to the Board.
Lonergan anticipates that one of the topics he will deal with the most is divestment. He said, “I am excited to learn more about divestment and also look into more ways that Colorado College can be integrated into the broader Colorado Springs community and create more of a beneficial relationship.”