President and VP Candidates
Bios
Darcie Jones (President)
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Hi all! I'm Darcie Jones and I'm a fourth year Mechanical Engineering Major with a minor in Management. On campus, you can find me touring students around campus through Admissions, advising students through Residence Life, as well as planning events with WE@RIT through their Leadership Board. I was also on the varsity women’s soccer team for four years and just recently stopped that but still find passion in all things varsity sports.
JT Lapham (VP)
pronouns: He/Him/His
Hey everyone! My name is JT Lapham and I’m a third year Biochemistry major. I’m currently the President of Theta Chi here at RIT but I’ve also been a part of other clubs like the Student Music Association and the Men's Club Rugby Team. I’m often all over campus whether I’m studying in Gosnell, eating in Global Village, or playing basketball in the SLC. If you see me around campus, stop me and say hi! I love to meet new people.
Platform
Collaboration:
Project SpiRIT will aim to increase participation across all RIT clubs and organizations. Project SpiRIT was already established so we plan to build on their idea but also improve. The project will reward students for attending events that happen on campus. If students attend events, they can earn points that go towards winning a larger prize (Monitor, Airline Ticket Voucher, TV, etc.). Students will be awarded greater for also bringing a friend along to events. Events that will count towards Project SpiRIT include all RSOs, No Voice Zone, Greek Life, CAB, Performing Arts, and many more!
Communication:
We want to showcase Student Government by continuing Weekly Updates that not only promote events on campus but also include some internal workings so outside students understand what happens on a day - to - day basis.
We also plan to reestablish the Committee Fair about all the internal committees of Student Government. This way students are aware and can show up to committees knowing exactly their intention!
Not only do we want to communicate what the Student Government does internally, we also want to hear students' problems more effectively. Sure, PawPrints does its thing but recurring Town Halls would allow students to talk with representatives directly.
Merch! We hope to acquire more giveaways next year to market Student Government better. Promoting Student Government to first-year students directly with a small sticker, magnet, etc. would expose that population earlier!
Change:
We want to work with the new CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services) Director in order to provide adequate support for all students. Mental health on this campus has improved, but can we improve it further?
Both Greek and Special Interest Housing have gotten a negative spin on this campus. We want to help correct this issue by working to break stigma on both. Especially with Greek Housing, how can we adequately address and hear tension points.
COLA, SOIS, Saunders, and CAD students find Career Fair completely and utterly underwhelming. Most companies that attend Career Fair are only looking for Engineers or Computing students. There have been strides made in this administration to rectify this issue and we want to continue this into the future.
Currently, there is an internal committee focusing on Accessibility on campus. This combines disabled and deaf issues into one committee. We feel as though splitting Accessibility into Deaf Advocacy and Accessibility would allow for more focus in each area.