On Friday the 27th of April, Transylvania University officially opened the new Carpenter Academic Center to the public. At the same time, the University also held its inaugural Student Academic Conference.
Timed to coincide with the start of the 2018 Alumni Weekend and a prospective student preview day, the Academic Center (formerly known as Haupt Humanities) was opened for tours, informal walk-throughs, and academic presentations.
Academic Dean Dr. Laura Bryan noted that renovations to the Haupt building had been a long-term project and that she was happy to see it come to completion. As the building has opened back up, the new color scheme, a yellow- and gold-heavy mixture against tile and hardwood floors, has led one Spanish professor to affectionately dub Carpenter “La Vara de Oro” (the golden rod).
May Term classes are now being held in the building, and Humanities and Social Sciences professors are in the process of moving into their new offices and out of their temporary offices in Hazelrigg Hall.
The Academic Conference was meant to highlight student work from a variety of disciplines. Dean Bryan emphasized that the Conference “was run as a partnership between SGA and the Dean’s Office.”
Student work was nominated by the faculty directors of academic programs and was sent to SGA organizers for review. SGA then sent a final list of submitted works to Dean Bryan for approval. Dean Bryan noted that the conference was “open to all programs” in an attempt to highlight the breadth of a liberal arts institution.
The conference featured topics ranging from art exhibitions and literary analysis to quantum efficiency and the role of the Catholic Church in a post-genocide Rwanda.
This Saturday, April 28, from 10 AM to 3 PM, several locations on Lexington’s Main Street were home to the Listen Up! Festival. This festival, inspired by the momentum gained by the #MeToo movement, was created to provide community-wide support for survivors and victims of interpersonal violence, which Stephanie Theakston, the Program Coordinator of the Domestic Violence Prevention Board, described in a press release as “including dating violence, domestic violence, sexual violence, and stalking”.
Theakston, who is coordinating the event, explained that the event is a continuation of the strides made with the #MeToo movement.
“At the end of last year there was a lot of momentum for this topic from the #MeToo movement, and we wanted to build on that before public attention shifted,” said Theakston on the beginnings of this festival.
In addition to bringing attention to the topic of interpersonal violence, the festival will also serve to educate the community on preventing and handling it. This event is not just for professionals, victims, or survivors but for the entire community.
“We wanted it to be something that highlighted the voices of survivors themselves, that built empathy for their experiences, that educated the general public on the diversity of those experiences and why victims might respond in different ways to violence, and we wanted it to be something that made solutions accessible to people so they could begin to see and participate in ways that make a difference for victims and survivors,” said Theakston.
List of events hosted at Main St locations.
The hope for the festival is that the Lexington community can come together to stop domestic violence. Many of its activities will be focused on ending violence but also on how to support the victims of it.
Anyone can be a victim of interpersonal violence, so one goal of the festival is to show the diverse groups of people it affects.
“We also are hoping this will be an opportunity to demonstrate there is support for victims and survivors of different identities, including survivors within LGBTQ communities, survivors that speak various languages, survivors of color, survivors of multiple ethnicities and different ages, survivors that are immigrants, survivors with varying abilities, and more,” said Theakston.
Theaskton explained that one of the biggest highlights of the festival is that there are many opportunities for survivors of interpersonal violence to speak out and share their experiences. One such space for this is the Soapbox Area that will be located by the fountains in front of the Chase Bank Building.
“If any survivors are just now hearing about the festival and would like to make their voice heard, the Soapbox is the perfect area to do so, and that will be happening during the whole festival,” said Theakston, encouraging survivors to speak out.
Map of Listen Up! events
This festival has many community sponsors, including Transy. “Through the Office of Student Wellbeing, Transy has injected wonderful energy and creativity into our planning process. There are several activities taking place at the festival that have been created and organized by Transy staff, and there will be several students volunteering – especially from It’s On Us,” said Theakston.
Theakston wants everyone to know that, “The festival is free and family friendly, and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous!”
Most of us (maybe not all) have finally made it through Finals Week and into the first week of May Term. This week’s playlist has a mix of throwback mellow vibes from Jack Johnson to Sugar Ray and John Mayer to start your May Term off right. It’s time to kick back, relax, and enjoy the bliss of only having one class.
Art by Moira Hedrick
The Student Activities Board is hosting Spring Fling tonight, on Friday, April 27th, starting at 9 PM in Back Circle! This year’s event is carnival themed, so expect cotton candy! There’s also rumors of Cane’s and Moe’s, so you can’t miss it (and you definitely can’t miss the giant white tent outside).
On April 18th Transylvania University hosted the first and only debate between the candidates for the Democratic nomination for the 6th Congressional District of Kentucky. There are three candidates for the nomination: Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, State Senator for the 13th District Reggie Thomas, and Lt. Colonel (Ret.) Amy McGrath.
The forum, which was moderated by Hey Kentucky host Matt Jones, focused on policy questions.
On healthcare, Senator Thomas committed to fighting for a ‘Medicare-for-all’ plan, which would replace the currently US healthcare system with a single-payer healthcare system. (Single-payer healthcare refers to a healthcare system in which there is a single provider—in this case the US government—which can set prices for medical goods, like drugs, and services, like doctors’ visits or surgeries). Sen. Thomas noted that the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicare both function as single-payer plans for parts of the population, and offered this as evidence that a single-payer could be an effective option for the US.
Col. McGrath endorsed a public option, which would preserve private healthcare markets, but also allow the option for people to purchase a government-controlled healthcare plan; Col. McGrath referred to this as an “Uncle Sam Plan.” She also endorsed the idea of a Medicare buy-in for those 55 or older, effectively allowing those who bought in to the program to access the healthcare coverage provided to Medicare recipients in exchange for a monthly premium, much like a private individual healthcare plan.
Mayor Gray endorsed making incremental changes to the Affordable Care Act (ACA; also known as Obamacare), including reinstating a medical device tax to raise funds that would help offset other healthcare costs.
On the topic of student debt, Mayor Gray said that he would support the ability to re-finance student loans.
Sen. Thomas endorsed a tax on arbitrage exchanges (a type of financial tool) to fund free college education for all.
Col. McGrath supported expanding funding for educational programs in exchange for public service. Such a program currently exists for military veterans under the G.I. Bill, and has existed since shortly after the end of the Second World War.
When asked to re-litigate the 2016 Democratic primary race, each of the candidates noted that they voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, though each was unsure if they would take the same vote again if they had another chance.
In their opening and closing statements, each candidate emphasized their campaign message. Senator Thomas positioned himself as an advocate for people who feel that the Democratic Party has left them behind. Mayor Gray focused on his commitment to bring different groups together. Col. McGrath argued that the 6th District needed better leaders.
Several Transylvania students attended the debate, and spoke with The Rambler afterwards. Most came into the debate supporting Col. McGrath. When asked whether the debate did anything to change her mind, McGrath supporter and Transy senior Claire Gardner simply replied, “No.” First-year Sydney Tye said that she was glad that the debate “introduced me to Reggie Thomas,” though she left the debate still supporting McGrath.
Tye said that, as the child of a military family, she appreciated that McGrath “dispelled” the idea that she was not familiar with the district after living on military bases for several years.
You can watch the whole debate above, courtesy of LEX18 News & Hey Kentucky.
I cannot think of anything more important to a true college experience than snack food, especially during times of stress, such as finals week. The problem with snack food is that so much of it is unhealthy. Stuff like chips and candy, rich in sugar and fats, is far more likely to be consumed than fresh vegetables. It is not hard to discover why. Snack foods are far more appealing if they are sweet or salty. But here is a recipe on how to have the best of both words.
Chia jam. It may sound like a health nut’s key to healthier toast in the morning, but this stuff is actually delicious. It is sweet like candy, and if you spread it on crackers, you can get a salty crunch in there as well. The fact that chia seeds are packed with protein and you use honey instead of sugar only makes it even better.
Most recipes tell you how to make jam with fresh fruits, by heating the fruit, blending it, and then mixing it with the other ingredients, but honestly that sounds rather time consuming. Instead, you can just take your favorite flavor jam and mix it with some water, honey, and chia seeds to make a delicious, sweet and hearty snack perfect for those late-night study sessions. I used apricot jam in my recipe, but honestly any jam will do. I particularly recommend raspberry or strawberry.
Photo by Moira Hedrick
The first step is to combine a quarter cup of jam with a teaspoon of honey and 2 tablespoons of chia seeds. You can stir this in a bowl, or you can stir it directly in the container you will be refrigerating and keeping the jam in. You will also need to add 1 tablespoon of water to make the mixture a little thinner because the chia seeds will soak up a fair bit of the liquid. Make sure you stir the ingredients well.
Once the jam is mixed, if you have not already, add the mixture to a resealable container. This can be a mason jar or just a plastic container. Both will work. Then, the jam must be refrigerated for at least an hour to allow the chia seeds to soak up some of the liquid of the mixture and help the jam thicken to an easily spreadable paste.
Once the jam is ready, feel free to spread it on whatever food you would like. I prefer crackers, especially for a mid-afternoon snack. However, it can be delicious on toast, a sandwich, or even with biscuits. The only limit is your imagination.
Photo by Moira Hedrick
Recipe
Ingredients
¼ cup jam (apricot, strawberry, and raspberry are all excellent flavors)
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons chia seeds
About 1 tsp. honey. (Adjust to taste)
Directions
Combine jam, water, and chia seeds in a container. Stir until well mixed.
Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Remove from fridge and spread on medium of your choice, such as toast, crackers, or bread.
Every Monday, the Rambler will release a 20 Questions Video. This series will feature a different staff member each week and we hope will allow the campus community to learn more about and feel more connected with our unique staff. This week’s video features Director of Campus and Community Engagement Michelle Thompson
So we’ve made it to the final stretch. The LAST week of school. May Term is right around the corner and we all know what that means…..play term!
This week’s playlist is full of finals week puns because nearly every song is either about being stressed or having a hard week, so you’re welcome.
I won’t make this blog too lengthy this week because first of all, there aren’t any arts events. Second of all, I have finals to study for and papers to write.
Student Government Association (SGA) President Joseph Gearon hosted a debate last night among the candidates for 2018-19 SGA President in advance of the election to be held this Thursday.
The three candidates are Shelby Lewis, Mark Sirianno, and Jocelyn Lucero. All three are juniors currently serving as SGA Senators.
Lewis’s personal statement highlighted her experience as SGA’s sustainability liason and her work with Food Justice, a program that distributes “snack packs” to food-insecure students at Harrison Elementary School. She said that as President, she will continue to work with the Transy Environmental Action League (TEAL) and promote ongoing sustainability efforts on campus. Lewis said the theme of her campaign would be to interact with the administration to get things done, and she emphasized past accomplishments, including the installation of bottle-fillers at water fountains and the addition of several trash cans and recycling bins around campus.
Lewis is the first Greek-unaffiliated candidate for SGA President in four years, a fact she acknowledged in her opening remarks. She said this would make her able to represent a broader majority of the campus. She suggested that efforts toward change be executed via committees composed of faculty, staff, and students. She stated she would hold more open forums than SGA does now to better solicit student views.
Sirianno stated his campaign is focused on representing the will of the students to the administration. He cited SGA’s effectiveness reversing the administration’s controversial decision not to offer summer housing and said that as President, he will fight for students to have a voice in final decision-making, beyond the advisory role SGA largely operates in currently. As Senator, he said he has lobbied successfully for the placement of staplers beside every printer and made other proposals as well.
Sirianno acknowledged the need to improve ties between SGA and the broader campus and said he would do so by asking Senators to approach students in class to solicit their views. He stated SGA’s biggest failure in the past year was not standing up for students often enough. On the subject of better engagement with the community, Sirianno spoke largely of forming ties with local businesses to offer discounts to Transy students who buy their products. To carry out his plans, he said that as President he would use his biweekly meetings with President Carey to discuss the issues most important to students. (Regardless of officeholder, the SGA President meets with President Carey every two weeks.)
In her personal statement, Lucero said the issues most important to her are transparency, both for the administration and SGA, and creating a campus that is both inclusive and cohesive. She stated that SGA needs to do more to reach out to students not already involved in it by approaching individual students and “smaller” campus organizations. To this end, she stated that student involvement, within the campus and with the surrounding Lexington community, was the foremost theme of her campaign and proposed that the ethos of connection with Lexington present in First Engagements be made a part of campus life in upper-class years as well.
Lucero was the only candidate to explicitly discuss the recent controversy surrounding ongoing campus issues of diversity and inclusion, which emerged dramatically in a campus forum held on April 5. Lucero said she was present for the forum and acknowledged what she saw as a widespread feeling that nothing changes, and she said that she wants SGA to be a voice for change representative of the whole community’s interests and repeatedly stated her intention to approach students personally to solicit their views.
In general, the three candidates agreed on what issues deserve SGA’s attention and on many of the solutions proffered. One area of clear divergence was in how each candidate proposed to resolve conflicts between the interests of SGA and those of the administration. Lewis said she would work to “compromise,” Sirianno said he would “choose [his] battles,” and Lucero said she would stand up and fight for what she believes in, because otherwise the SGA President is just a “puppet.”
Around seventy audience members were present for the debate. Voting will be available on Thursday, April 12, and Friday, April 13, with dedicated stations set up in the Caf and the Raf. The polls close on April 13 at 5pm and results will be announced Monday, April 16 in TNotes.
This past Friday, April 6, 2018 at 7:30 PM, Transylvania’s Chamber Orchestra and Choirs teamed up for a spring concert in Haggin Auditorium. The concert highlighted the growth of the two groups and exhibited the fine-tuned skill of the singers and musicians.
The Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Ben Hawkins, started the program off with Georges Bizet’s Suite from the incidental music to “L’Arlésienne” (the original theatre orchestra instrumentation). The powerful and dynamic piece included seven movements that highlighted the abilities of each section. The flutes and violins carried whimsical melodies, and the strings all met up to propel the movements forward throughout the piece. The instrumentation was peaceful and dreamlike, and the melody told a story that left each audience member writing inside their own head.
The group of musicians consisted mostly of current students but had one or two guest players in a little over half of the sections. Between the Orchestra and Choir’s performance, Dr. Hawkins took the time to recognize the two senior members of the group and to present two awards. Peyton Thomas and Gage Abell, both violinists, are the two graduating seniors of the orchestra. Thomas serves as the concertmaster and Abell as the principal violinist. Each year, Transy’s Chamber Orchestra selects recipients for two awards: Outstanding First Year and Outstanding Service Award. The Outstanding Service Award, which is usually given to a senior, was presented to Thomas, who Dr. Hawkins accredits with much of the group’s growth over the last four years. The Outstanding First Year Award was given to violinist Grace Kim, who Dr. Hawkins noted has become an essential part of the orchestra in just one year.
Photo courtesy of Sally Horowitz Photography: Dr. Ben Hawkins recognizing the two graduating seniors of the Chamber Orchestra: Peyton Thomas and Gage Abell.
In the second half of the concert, Dr. Hawkins passed his conducting baton to Dr. Brittany Benningfield and joined the choirs as a guest Bass. As a combined effort, both the choirs and the Chamber Orchestra tackled Mozart’s “Coronation Mass”. Before the start of the mass, Dr. Benningfield took time to recognize the five graduating seniors of the group: Sopranos Meredith Davis and Anna Silva, Altos Nellie Heitzman and Kathy Ison, and Bass Timothy Baker. Each of the graduating members wore a boutonniére of a single red rose that brightened the sea of singers dressed in black and white. Joining the choirs were multiple Transylvania Choir Alumni: Soprano Rebecca Keith, Tenor Jamie Hagood, and Bass Alex Cesar. Along with Dr. Hawkins were seven other collaborating artists: Soprano Amanda Balltrip, Alto Katie London, Tenors Henry Huhtuhlag, Thabang Masango, and Brock Terry, and Basses Ryan Barr and Michael Pandolfo.
The piece featured six movements and four soloists, representing each voice part. The soloists were senior Soprano Meredith Davis, junior Alto Jessi Samuel, senior Tenor Brayden Bergman, and junior Bass Michael Maggard. Mozart’s “Coronation Mass” is a powerful proclamation of faith, and the choir delivered on that energy. As the soloists led the mass, Davis’ soprano voice floated throughout Haggin Auditorium with energy and grace. Each of the soloists displayed a devotion to the music and an impressive amount of control and precision in their voices. The Chamber Orchestra accompanied the voices as a gentle partner; neither group ever overpowered the other, and they complimented each other during the curves and dips that the mass often takes. Dr. Benningfield carefully conducted the group without missing a beat while leading over seventy musicians, demanding their attention with her deliberate movements and signature sparkly attire.
Photo courtesy of Sally Horowitz Photography: Angela Eaton overlooking the Choirs and Chamber Orchestra while accompanying the two groups on the organ.
The concert was a beautiful testament of the dedication that the music faculty and students have to the music they create. Dr. Hawkins and Dr. Benningfield conducted the groups with ease and emotion while their musicians gracefully followed along.
If you missed the concert (or want to hear it again), listen to the sixth and last movement of their “Coronation Mass” here!
Rambler Editor-in-Chief Tristan Reynolds interviewed Shelby Lewis, one of the candidates for the SGA Presidency. Read the full interview below, and read his interviews with the other candidates, as well as full Rambler coverage of the 2018 SGA Elections, here.
The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Tristan Reynolds: What qualifies you to be SGA President?
Shelby Lewis: Well, I’ve been on SGA since I was a freshman here, and each year I’ve become more and more involved. My freshman year, I will admit that I wasn’t as involved as I should have been, but my sophomore year I took on the responsibility of being sustainability liaison, and I think that was a very good outlet for me to become more involved with SGA, passing different proposals and helping to install more sustainability-minded projects on campus. With that, I’ve also worked with many administrators on campus, so I think I’m more close up. I’ve become closer to administrative bodies, which would help me as a president. If I became SGA president, it would help me because I had already had those connections between other people on campus, including most of the athletic staff, which I feel like not many individuals on campus are connected to. That’s a whole other aspect that hasn’t been tapped into. But I think I’m always very productive, whether it’s doing small projects or big projects, and I’m always working on trying to get something accomplished that’s going to help the student body. So I think for those reasons that I will be qualified to run for president of the SGA.
Tristan Reynolds: OK. There’s a lot of stuff I want to touch on there. To start off, you mentioned your work as sustainability liaison. What are some of the specific projects that you’ve worked on?
Photo by Tristan Reynolds
Shelby Lewis: So many of the projects I work on are a form of proposals, which is essentially writing out what we want done. I take it to the SGA and we vote on it, and if it gets passed, I work with administrators to like get it enforced on campus. So one of those will be to install low flow toilets into all of the updated and newly built buildings on campus because that would help save water, which is sustainable and also would help the university in the long run. A proposal I wrote this past semester was getting more water bottle filling stations in each of the buildings on campus because it makes it easier for students to fill up their bottles, which makes it easier to be sustainable and cuts back on Transy’s plastic bottle waste. Last year what I worked on for the majority of the year, with a green revolving loan fund, was working on trash can or recycling issues on campus. So currently our campus is not the best at recycling and is still trying to find new avenues to help promote recycling habits and to help people understand what they can and can’t recycle. And so for that, I made the proposal to have a matching trash can [and recycling bin] be paired together everywhere across campus, but at the moment we’re in that period where we have to first teach the student body and the faculty and the staff how to properly recycle before we can do that. So that’s something I’ve tried to, you know, encourage over the past year, and helped promote that. So then we can go and do that next step, with having trash cans and recycle bins paired everywhere. So then we become a more sustainable campus. We can recycle more and have less trash.
Tristan Reynolds: What percentage of your proposals get adopted by the full senate? How many have been carried through to what could be characterized as completion?
Shelby Lewis: So all of the ones that I’ve proposed that have been about sustainability measures have been passed on SGA. Right now I’ve been working with the administration to make sure that the water bottle fillers proposal, and then the low flow toilet proposal, are still in effect. A lot of that, a lot of what we do on SGA, is emailing people back and forth, trying to set up meetings. So I’m working on that. And then the, like I said, the recycling bin/trash can pairs have been halted because we’re trying to teach our student body and everyone else how to recycle. So usually with proposals they’re kind of an ongoing thing, so you want to make sure that they are being enforced and also being written into, not necessarily like Transylvania law, but they’re written somewhere, and then we have to follow it.
Tristan Reynolds: To close this section of the interview out, in your work in sustainability and as a senator more generally, have you been satisfied with the way that SGA is run?
Photo by Tristan Reynolds
Shelby Lewis: I think since my freshman year I’ve become more satisfied with the way the SGA has been run. With that, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s whoever is in on the executive committee, I think it’s more of I have stepped up with my involvement and made sure that I am more involved in SGA, because SGA is one of those things that it is what you make it. And so I wouldn’t say I was ever discontent with who was ever running SGA, but it’s more of me being discontent with myself for not stepping forward and doing more as a Senator. So I think, over the past three years, I think I’m happier with my experience in Sustainability, but I think it’s directly correlated with me stepping up and doing more work on SGA.
Tristan Reynolds: A quick follow-up there: you mentioned that you’ve been more satisfied with your work on sustainability. Do you think that is a satisfaction shared by your constituents?
Shelby Lewis: I think so. I think that right now the student body is upset, rather than happy with what’s going on, on Transy’s campus. I don’t think it’s necessarily anything to do with SGA, but it’s hard to keep a happy constituent body, with what we’re doing when the administration and SGA aren’t on the same page with a lot of things. I also will say that it’s not necessarily my personal growth and happiness with SGA. SGA, like as a whole, like I think all the senators contribute to the happiness of constituents. And I would say that with each year, I think we’ve done more and more things to make the student body happy.
Tristan Reynolds: Here’s the obvious follow-up. You mentioned a certain level of discontent among the Transy student body. Can you outline for me what you understand that discontent to be focused on? What are the issues causing that discontent?
Photo by Tristan Reynolds
Shelby Lewis: I’d say right now the major discontent would be about the housing situation on campus, specifically with summer housing, which we have kind of resolved on SGA. We will have summer housing here now. But for a moment there wasn’t, and a lot of students already have jobs in Lexington, and they have internships and they’re doing research and things like that. So there was a big stress for a moment where everyone was like, “we have no idea where we’re going to be this summer because we can’t live here.” I think a lot of people are also discontented with the housing situation for next year. But I think that that’s something we will have to get past and figure out. I think now that housing selection is kind of over, I think it’s maybe not as big of an issue. But then again, I’ve heard a lot of freshmen specifically talk about how they don’t have places to live on campus because there aren’t any places to live on campus. And so I think right now, like you said, I think that’s the major thing that people are discontented with at the moment, and I think that’s something that SGA has been addressing and will continue to address.
Tristan Reynolds: The other thing you mentioned in your original answer, that I want to circle back to, is the idea of SGA and the university administration not being on the same page. What do you mean by that?
Shelby Lewis: I think, so being on SGA, you have to work up the ladder to make sure you’re really going by proper terms and going through the correct people in the right order.
Tristan Reynolds: Can I interrupt? If you’re elected President, do you believe that that’s the appropriate way for students to interact with the administration?
Shelby Lewis: I think so. I would want to encourage students to first go to people who they have a connection with already, but if not I’d just start at the bottom level and work yourself up because a lot of the times, a lot of our projects, we don’t necessarily know who exactly to go talk to. I would think I would run it the same exact way because I think it keeps us in a uniform way in order to do things. And I think it’s a good order.
Tristan Reynolds: Returning to the question, I’m sorry I cut you off there. Let me ask the sort of broader philosophical question there; as president, assuming you’re elected, how do you envision a proper relationship between SGA and the university administration?
Photo by Tristan Reynolds
Shelby Lewis: I think a proper relationship would be not only us communicating what we want to the administration, but I think the administration needs to come to us and say like, what do the students want or what do you think or like, come to us with an issue like such as housing. What if they came to us first and then we talked about it and gave our feedback. I think that there would be more cohesion between us and the administration if they would also come to us with ideas rather than only us coming to them with ideas to talk about.
Tristan Reynolds: Who’s us inthis answer—us means SGA? Do you think that there’s a role for student feedback outside of SGA?
Shelby Lewis: Of course. I think that there’s many avenues to talk to other people, to talk to administrators on campus without having to go through SGA. I know I’ve personally reached out several times to administration that wasn’t as SGA related but something that I just wanted to talk to someone about. So I do think there’s other avenues to do that, and I think you could go through, say, College Republicans or Democrats if there’s something on campus you want to see or talk to an administrator about; you should feel welcomed to contact an administrator. So just to reiterate, I do think there’s other ways to get in touch with the administration, not only through SGA, but I would say that SGA would probably be the, not the easiest route necessarily, but would be the most appropriate route to go.
Tristan Reynolds: Moving on for a moment to more nakedly political questions. Do you expect to win?
Shelby Lewis: I don’t want to say yes or no. I’m very excited for this opportunity. I’ve had a lot of people help me with different campaign materials like fliers and tri-folds and I think that, I think I would be able to win if I work hard, but I also think that someone like Mark or Jocelyn could win if they also worked hard, and I think working hard shows how much you want it. And this is something I genuinely want, and I genuinely think that I would be able to make a difference on this campus. And for me it’s not just a resume builder; it’s to help the student body. So I don’t, I don’t, I don’t want to say yes or no, but I hope so.
Tristan Reynolds: A few things I want to touch on that, but let me ask you the other nakedly political question first. Consider for a moment your opponents. Suppose that either of them were elected, do you believe that they would carry out the duties of the job to the best of their ability?
Photo by Tristan Reynolds
Shelby Lewis: I do think that both of them would do a wonderful job as president. I think all of us are on somewhat equal playing field. I would say though that I think I would be a better choice just because I’m not affiliated with Greek life, and I am a student athlete on campus, which is very different from the both of them. But I do think that both of them would carry out the duties as president to the best of their abilities.
Tristan Reynolds: OK. So I’m gonna pick up on something that you’ve mentioned a few times through the course of these interviews, that you are not affiliated and that you are a student athlete. Can you talk a little bit about why you think that matters?
Shelby Lewis: So, there’s not a large amount of us on SGA that are involved with sports on campus, and my experiences with sports in general and on this campus has been very positive. I think that it gives me an outlet in a way, and I think it’s also helped me establish more leadership qualities and also time management qualities. For example, I was the first pole vaulter here at Transy, which is a very daunting task to think about, to be the first of anything, but I guess in that sense I really am a pioneer, but I will be lying to say that that didn’t scare me to come and be the only person and try to build our team up. And also with track, I’ve developed a very positive attitude about things. And especially like at track meets, people will complain if the weather’s not perfect or if the track isn’t great. And I’ve always been that person that’s like, hey, but it’s a beautiful day or hey, you still ran a really good race. And I think that positivity that I’ve taken from sports, which would translate into me being president of SGA and keeping a positive attitude even when things we’re discussing may not be a cohesively agreed upon topic in meetings. To talk about Greek life a little bit. I think not being affiliated with Greek life helps me out or makes me a better candidate because I’m not going to be partial to one group on campus. And so just for my outside experiences with Greek life, I really was interested in joining Greek life. The thing that stopped me was the financial aspect of it. So it’s not that I was never interested in it, but I think that not being in it has made me look at the entire community as a whole, the Transy community as a whole rather than separating us into little aspects or little sections. Like this is the Greek life, this is a student athlete since I’m very involved with other things on campus. So just being like the student coordinator of Food Justice and being involved in sports. And College Democrats and things like that, I’ve been able to interweave and mingle with all these people, and I feel like sometimes that being in a Greek life organization might cut you off from other Greek life organizations and the whole community. So I’m not, I don’t want to come across as saying that being in Greek life isn’t a positive. I think it is still a positive, but I’m just seeing it in a different way.
Tristan Reynolds: If elected, what changes would you work to bring to SGA as a whole? Or are you broadly satisfied with the course that SGA is run?
Shelby Lewis: I wouldn’t say that I’m not satisfied with the current way that SGA is ran or communicates with administration on campus, but I do think that that connection between students and administrators can be better and more cohesive on various issues. So I think I’d really like to make sure that all student voices are being heard and make sure the administration is hearing all of those and there’s not a gap between those because I feel like sometimes the administration will be like, oh, I bet the students will love this. Well, they won’t really know until they sit and talk and ask us. So I think trying to build on that relationship is very important to me. And like I said earlier, I do think that SGA should become more involved with off-campus community building activities, meeting with the surrounding community, because I know that we would go to PumpkinMania, we do things like that, but I don’t think it’s just the happiness of the Transylvania students and faculty and staff that matters. I think it also matters what the happiness of the community around us is, and they definitely could use a helping hand every once in a while. So I do think that could be a catalyst for getting out in the community more. And I also would like to keep pushing sustainability measures on campus, whether that’s me, myself doing that, or we’re in a partnership with TEAL or the next sustainability liaison. I think that that’s something that is very important to me and I think should be important to a lot of people. So I think continuing to push that and up the stance; sustainability measures on campus is something that I would definitely want to follow or follow up with and continue to do, and I think that the student or the SGA as a body will be able to promote that as well.
Photo by Tristan Reynolds
Tristan Reynolds: I want to follow up on something you said. You mentioned conversations between students and the administration. Do you believe that the administration would come to those conversations in good faith?
Shelby Lewis: I think that they would; I think that they would value having student input on various campus issues, and I personally think it’s wrong if they don’t want student input on issues, especially since we are such a small campus. I think my opinion would greatly change if we were sitting at UK right now, and being UK students because that is such a large student body, but here the whole point, not the whole entire point, but one of the big points about coming to Transy for me was having that connection with administrators and having connections with your professors and others on campus, and every year since I’ve been here, I think I see improvements with that, and I think that we should continue to improve upon that, and I think that the administration would come with open ears the majority of the time and be able to listen to student voice.
Tristan Reynolds: A final question, and it’s a two part question. Supposing that one of your opponents is elected, would you remain on SGA, and would you work with them? And supposing that you are elected, how would you work with your opponents, assuming they remain on SGA?
Shelby Lewis: I would of course stay on SGA. I have had a wonderful experience with SGA the past three years, and I would not give that up for anything, and I, regardless of who’s president, vice president, chief of staff, chief of finance, any of that, I would remain on SGA because I truly believe that the point of SGA is to help the student body and to create better relationships between other students and to bring people together. And me not joining SGA just because I’m not elected president would be the exact opposite of what I’m saying. So I definitely would stay on SGA, and I also believe that my opponents would also stay on SGA because I think it’s something that we all genuinely have loved being a part of, and we all love making a difference on campus. And I think that I can make a difference as president or a senator. And I think the same goes for my opponents.
Tristan Reynolds: All right, Ms. Lewis, thank you for your time.
