As the Johns Hopkins Student Council (StuCo) kicks off another year, it is hard to ignore the lingering questions and issues left over from last year. Possibly the most important and pressing of these issues would be the fact that StuCo currently has no executive president.
Based on the StuCo Constitution, the yet-to-be-elected executive president "serves as spokesperson of the student body" and "chair and parliamentarian of the Executive Council and the Student Assembly."
"The main issues being dealt with in Student Council right now concern not only regrouping and learning how to work under a new constitution but also several different social issues," said Senior Class President Payal Patel.
Patel stressed the efforts of the different committees to improve student life here on campus. For example, the Entertainment Committee has "been working all summer to get the year off right."
Patel pointed to a successful club night and DisOrientation as examples of successful endeavors of StuCo.
"The Class of 2005 kicked off the year with DisOrientation which was a week long program aimed at helping seniors get a head start on the job search," Patel said.
However, some StuCo members still find it difficult to forget the controversies of the 2003-2004 school year.
According to Sophomore Class Representative for Legislation Rebecca Shrago, "the main issues right now are the freshmen elections and the pending presidential election.
"Most likely, both of these elections will be held in early October. This will be the fourth election for executive president, and the vacancy of this position is hard to ignore."
Without someone in this key role, "it is difficult to facilitate the separation between executive members and the senators," Shrago said.
At the moment, Executive Vice Presidents Fuseini and Temkasem are essentially in charge, "conducting meetings to the best of their ability, and doing a fine job at it," according to Shrago.
According to Patel, StuCo members are cautiously optimistic about the next steps in the governing process.
"The presidential race is open to all sophomores, juniors and seniors and will be voted on by those three classes only," Patel said. "I hope that this election runs smoothly, but judging from the craziness of past elections, you never know."
