The Associated Students of Lewis & Clark (ASLC) held a debate for prospective senators, Christian Gipson ’23, Amatullah Aman ’21, Stephanie Morrall ’23, Abdo Al Rayyis ’22 and Miron Banjac ’22 in J.R. Howard on Jan. 21. There were five candidates for four open senator positions. The debate was moderated by Editor-in-Chief Hanna Merzbach ’20 and Copy Chief Ariel McGee ’21 from The Pioneer Log.
On Feb. 5, it was announced that Gipson, Aman, Morrall and Al Rayyis won the election and will be appointed to the ASLC Senate.
The debate began with an opening statement from each candidate. Morall said that, as an ASLC senator, she aims to increase representation for each individual student.
“I feel like the individual voice of Lewis & Clark really needs to be advocated more,” Morall said. “Lewis & Clark talks a lot about how they care about people with disabilities or any special circumstances, but I believe that in practice, they could do a better job. So I feel really passionate about being an advocate for those voices that I think haven’t been paid enough attention to.”
Following opening statements, the moderators asked general questions to the group. The first question asked how the candidates would make ASLC more accessible to constituents if they became a senator. Aman emphasized the importance of communication.
“Communication is a key thing,” Aman said. “And it’s the reason why there’s a huge disconnect between ASLC and the student body. And it’s not because ASLC isn’t doing anything, it’s just that the student body doesn’t know. I think that in having more town halls that will kind of bring in the student body into these events. I feel like then we will be able to interact.”
Gipson said that his most important goal would be tackling the issue of division at LC.
“Upon coming to Lewis & Clark, I think I was expecting more community, more school spirit, more just like ‘I go to Lewis & Clark and I really love it,’” Gipson said. “I really like going to Lewis & Clark, but it just seems like it’s just divided. But that community aspect I think is really important and that school spirit is so important too. So I think different community events are going to be a really good thing for the students.”
Al Rayyis mentioned that he would like to see LC expand their food options and incorporate more student spaces.
“We have a real lack of food options on campus and it would be really nice to have a bigger variety in terms of prices,” Al Rayyis said. “I also think a lot of campuses have a place to, you know, for students to just be and hang out and have the tools for them to do that. And then (in that) building there’ll be certain forms of entertainment or cultural nights, etc. Sort of … just one place that brings together the culture of the campus.”
Banjac spoke about his frustrations with Student Rights and Responsibilities (SRR), and how its policies can impact students.
“First stop these masquerades of these Shared Resolutions and make it so that the students can actually impact what happens to them,” Banjac said. “Having a scale of these offenses that, so if you breach the alcohol policy … because , let’s face it, on college campuses these are common problems that people are commonly going to get in trouble for this. Why not have a scale of sort of what happens when you get in trouble? Also no more of these cross examinations between students and trying to hunt down these ‘culprits.’”
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