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Rizki Aljupri
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Photo by Josh Rouse, Washburn Review
Matthew Kelly WASHBURN REVIEW
Rizki Aljupri is running for student body president this week along side his running mate Nic Campbell. Fully prepared for what this week has in store, Rizki remembers leaving his home of Jakarta, Indonesia to become an exchange student in America. “When I was in high school I was the student council president,” said Aljupri. “I had a great family, I had a great girlfriend, but I applied to be an exchange student, and I got a scholarship to be an exchange student, to finish my senior year in the United States. I was excited even though I had to leave every great thing that I had in my home town.” As difficult as this transition was, Aljupri was happy to be living in America, especially because of its educational system. Aljupri has enjoyed the great number of student activities within the U.S. school system, and has been involved in many student organizations. Aljupri reflected on his decision to get involved in the Washburn Student Government Association, and said that part of his reason for getting involved was because he felt there were things at Washburn that needed improvement. “First I saw the poster, at the time that they had open senate seat, and at the same time I thought that there were things that needed to be improved here on our campus,” said Aljupri. “After I saw that poster, I came to student government by myself, I met the chief of staff at the time, which was Lucas Mullin, I asked him a lot of questions. He convinced me to get involved in student government.” Aljupri served as a senator of WSGA in the communications committee, internal finance, and internal affairs. He is the current talks and topics director for Campus Activities Board, the president of Delta-Chi fraternity, a member of the Muslim Student Association, and is holding treasurer positions on the Greek Council, Inter-Fraternity Council, Alpha-Lambda-Delta honors society, and the International Club. Within these organizations, Aljupri has been extremely active. He has helped to host a week long competition to raise money for Jimmy V cancer research (the philanthropy of Delta-Chi), participated in hosting concerts for Washburn students in CAB, assisted
in hosting Casino Night for CAB, and has helped to bring in at least two speakers every year on behalf of CAB. These a just a few of the many events that Aljupri has participated in. Although it may sound as though Aljupri is overbooked, he feels that his high levels of involvement are a necessary response to a lack of involvement from the students at Washburn. “I do love this university, and I do think that I know what the problem is, why we do have a lack of involvement on this campus. Many people have told me ‘hey dude, you are too busy in terms of involvement,’ and I told them ‘yes that is probably true, but I do love what I’m doing right now,’ because I believe that what I’m doing right now is going to have a huge impact at Washburn.” Aljupri expressed an idea that, since he has been serving in so many organizations, perhaps it’s time that he serves the entire university once and for all. He feels that the best way to accomplish this is in becoming the student body president. Aljupri and his running mate have come up with a five-part platform for their campaign: start a campus radio station, provide an application for smartphone users to keep students informed of campus activities, begin a student government newsletter to keep students up to date on what WSGA is doing, host a public forum every month so that students can give their feedback to the student government and require that professors post grades online. Aljupri’s opponent, Taylor McGown and her running mate and Michael Kitowski also have a detailed platform. However, Aljupri disagrees with a few of their ideas. Their platform is widely focused on switching the online class software form Angel to a software called Blackboard. Aljupri feels that the switch will have little effect since both have been owned by the same company, ever since Blackboard bought out Angel in 2009. “Angel is a company that is under Blackboard right now. They do have the same concept. The other candidate’s argument is that Blackboard is faster, and it’s easier to be used by the students and the faculty, who can update the course materials from iPhone, Blackberry, or Android for smartphone users.” Aljupri stated that he has talked to the faculty, and has come to the conclusion that not many of them will be using Blackboard to update course materials, or for online class discussion. For this reason, he feels that switching the course software will have little affect on students and faculty. Above all, Aljupri encourages students to go to the Memorial Union, and vote for the next president and vice president of WSGA on March 9, 10, or 11. Aljupri stresses the importance of voting. “I hope that I will have vote from Washburn students next week during the election, but remember, that is not my main point, that’s not my main goal running for the office. My main goal is to encourage that Washburn students vote.”
Matthew Kelly is a junior mass media major. Reach him at matthew.kelly@washburn.edu
Matthew Kelly WASHBURN REVIEW
Candidate, Taylor McGown is eagerly anticipating this week’s WSGA presidential election. Alongside her running mate, Michael Kitowski, McGown is confident that her experiences in various executive positions at Washburn have provided her with the skills necessary to fill the role of student body president. “I’ve been extremely involved on campus, so I think that I know a lot of different people,” said McGown. “I believe that through my leadership experience in WSGA, as well as my other organizations, that I would be well suited for this position, to represent the students as a whole in all of the areas that the president has to represent the students in.” McGown has been interested in WSGA since she first stepped foot on the Washburn campus, as she has followed the in the footsteps of her older brother. “My brother was on student government when he attended Washburn, and he told me it was a great way to get involved, a great way to voice your opinion, and help out the students, so I thought, I can try it out and see what happens,” said McGown. During her freshman year, McGown was a senator in WSGA, spirit committee chair for WSGA, a member of Bod Squad and the Student Recreational and Wellness Club, and was initiated into the Alpha Lambda Delta freshman honor society. Since then she has held the role of WSGA public relations director, and is currently the president of Bod Squad, and WSGA budget director. These are some of the positions she has held at Washburn. As part of her platform, McGown has a long-term goal of extending the hours of the Mabee library to 24-hours-a-day. She also plans to change Washburn’s online course system from Angel to an alternative system called Blackboard. “We want to bring a 24-hour access library, which would be huge at this campus. We want to change our online system from Angel to Blackboard, which again is a huge decision that the university has to make. We just want to be at the highest level that we possibly can, we want to be that university that everybody looks at as: ‘they have the best technology, they have the best facility, they have the best resources that a university could offer’.” McGown said it could take a couple of years to make the 24-hour access library a reality due to the financial challenges, and logistical planning. However, she feels it is important that WSGA plan for the future, as well as focusing on short-term goals. Through her and her running mate’s interactions with the dean of libraries, Dr. Bearman, the three of them have agreed that extended library hours would help Washburn to compete with neighboring universities. “Obviously as soon as we get into office, we can’t snap our fingers and have a building built, but Michael and I have met with [Bearman] and he basically has been looking for students to push this for a very long time, because a lot of area schools have 24-hour access libraries. All of our neighboring schools do. I think that’s a major con-
Taylor McGown
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volume 137, Issue 21 • wednesday, March 9, 2011
Photo by Josh Rouse, Washburn Review
cern, in that, we are behind a little bit.” At Washburn, many of the students who hold leadership positions tend to serve in multiple leadership positions on campus. Although McGown supports students who are so highly involved, she feels that this could be the symptom of a problem with student involvement in general; that students who are uninvolved on campus may not be fully enjoying their college experience. “It’s the same students over and over again in the same leadership positions. You see it all over campus. I was the president of Bod Squad and I’m trying for president of WSGA. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing that the students who like to be involved are involve, but there are so many positions out there that the students could have a part in.” McGown added: “Some students don’t realize they need that in their lives, to have that extracurricular activity. I would be so bored and so burnt out from school if I didn’t have Bod Squad and WSGA to actually do something fun rather than just study every night.” McGown’s opponents, Rizki Aljupri and running-mate Nic Campbell, have a detailed platform which, among other goals, involves starting a newsletter to keep students informed about want goes on at the WSGA senate meetings. Although McGown respects their goals to enhance communication between the students and their government, she did share a few criticisms. “That is a focus the WSGA needs to work on is to make sure that those lines of communication are open; that are minutes are always available for those students; that students know what we do inside and outside of senate. Our WSGA website already provides the minutes; already provides what we’re up to, and the events that we’re planning.” McGown went on to stress that the students are the central focus of her campaign, and that the students should feel free to approach her or her running-mate on any issue in order to better their college experience. “Our slogan is ‘for students, for change’. That means we are for you, and we are here to help you; here to give you the college experience that you want.”
Matthew Kelly is a junior mass media major. Reach him at matthew.kelly@washburn.edu