New Student Government president, vice president elected
Cheboygan junior Ian Elliott and Lake Orion senior Jazmin Biernat have been elected president and vice president of the Student Government Association.
This year 1,332 votes were cast — 646 more votes than last year. Of those votes 1,020 were cast in favor of Elliott and Biernat and 312 in favor of Owosso sophomore Andrew Zyrowski and his vice presidential candidate, White Lake junior Austin Blessing.
"Both Jazmin and I are excited to represent the student body next year," Elliott said. "We plan on starting planning for the (next) year on Monday. Next week is week one of working hard for students."
The two student representativeswill be sworn in at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 11 in Powers Ballroom.
Elliott and Biernat have four major policy points they hope to accomplish during their time in office: the creation of an on-campus Gender Equity Center, improving transparency in communication between administration and students, continuing to improve student-city relations and working to register voters on-campus at freshman orientation.
The two said just talking about problems and having lofty goals isn’t wholly what students need.
“Talking is easy. You don’t start making change on top of an ivory tower looking at things conceptually,” Elliott said before the election. “You have to go to the very root of a problem, figure out how it occurred and define the problems that result (because of it). The talking is necessary with people who make the decisions, but some sort of tangible solution has to come out of those situations. That’s where we feel we can make a difference for CMU.”
Prior to being elected president, Elliott served in SGA as former house and senate member. As a freshman, he created the student organization Student Advocates for the Medical and Responsible use of Cannabis. Elliott is serving as the SGA-appointed liaison between students and the Mount Pleasant city government.
Biernat's SGA experience includes serving as the governmental affairs committee chair. She has also worked as a reporter and news anchor at News Central 34.
