After months of campaigning, three first-year Colorado College students realized their goal of becoming elected to the CC Student Government Full Council. Burns, Filion, and Pollack were elected out of ten of their peers.
Voter turn out was at a mere 30 percent in an election held Thursday, Sept. 24.
Though they have varying levels of experience, all three new representatives express great enthusiasm about the role they have taken on in the CC community. Fillion seems to be the most veteran to student government. “I was super involved with executive council senior year and I knew I wanted to continue it here,” she said.
Despite her experience, however, Filion said that this election required more effort than had been required of her in the past.
“Everyone running was qualified and had great ideas,” said Eillion.
“I was trying to get across that I was light hearted, but also that I took this seriously,” said Eillion. “I made sure my class knew that I was being honest with this process and wasn’t making false promises. I was going to be responsible, willing to listen, and always positive.”
Similarly, Pollack also used positivity to gain the interest and support of students.
“I took the fun approach,” said Pollack. “I posted a funny poster everywhere on campus. With that I also went around meeting people and telling them about the election. I was just going around having a good time meeting new people.”
The fun strategy worked for him, because despite never having participated in student government in high school, Pollack earned the second most votes of all those hoping to get elected. He did hold leadership positions in high school.
“Coming to college I wanted to try new things and I decided student government would be a great way to continue in a area I enjoy while still getting new experiences,” said Pollack.
First year Julia Chippari said she voted for Burns, her neighbor.
“He was really excited about running and seemed to care about it a lot,” said Chippari. “I was walking past his room a few days before the election and stopped me and introduced himself and said why he was running and what not.”
Burns said he decided to run because “I wanted to be more involved in my high school student government but athletics and the social climate at my old school prevented me from doing so. I wanted an opportunity to use my social strengths to make a difference on campus.”
Burns clearly did a convincing campaign, as he earned the most votes with flying colors.
As for a more specific agenda, all agree that they will have more to say after their first meeting, which occurred Thursday, Oct. 1.