Executive elections for the 31st session of Drake Student Senate begin March 23 at 8 a.m. and continue through March 24 until 8 p.m. Students will get a chance to elect four candidates to the four executive positions: Student Body Treasurer, Vice President of Student Life, Vice President of Student Activities and Student Body President.

There are currently two students who have announced their candidacy for treasurer:

 Ava Whitthauer | junior, marketing and psychology major

What role should the position you are seeking play in making Drake University a high-quality institution?

As an executive position, the treasurer is expected to maintain many roles and obligations. It is essential that the treasurer maintain relationships with SFAC, student organizations, Exec, administration, and other members on student senate. By maintaining and developing these relationships, I would hope to make communication and visibility of allocations of funding clear to senate as well as the student body. I believe that having an active student body that understands the functionality of their fees and senates budget, more people will be involved in activities and remain interested in senate events.

What top three goals/priorities do you hope to address during your term in office? What makes you qualified to achieve these goals?

I hope to create a clearer outline and yearly progress for all organizations in order for them to know exactly where they stand within their budgets at all times. This would likely be created through an online portal.

At the beginning of each semester I would like to create a seminar for all organizations to send a member to in order to explain the bylaws and regulations as well as ways to efficiently get as much funding as possible.

I would also like to create a closer relationship between SFAC and senate in order to ensure that senate members understand exactly what goes into budgets as well as becoming more informed on voting for each request.

What motivated you to run for office? What do you hope to get out of this experience?

I was extremely motivated to run for this position after spending this past year around the table as the CBPA senator. I believe that my abilities that I have learned serving on senate such as the familiarity of rules, regulations, bylaws, and the understanding of the constant and rapid flow of information within an Executive position made me feel qualified to run. I think that my knowledge and skills I’ve acquired through other positions through my sorority, being a PMAC, orientation leader, as well as the relationships I have formed with administration will set me apart and give me a necessary edge to continue to develop student senate and improve the allocation process and clarity of Senate’s budget. I hope that within this next year I will be able to continue the progress made with clarity as well as achieve the goals I previously outlined in the question prior.

 Matt Craven | junior, accounting and finance major

What role should the position you are seeking play in making Drake University a high-quality institution?

It should be used to effectively budget the student body’s finances to give students the best possible experience Drake can provide while keeping the students well informed on how their money is being spent.

What top three goals/priorities do you hope to address during your term in office? What makes you qualified to achieve these goals?

Invest back into the students. Keep the students aware of what their money is being spent on. Allow students to decide how a portion of the budget is allocated

I am qualified to achieve these goals because I have served as the Treasurer in another on campus organization and also have experience with budgeting and bookkeeping through various jobs I have held in the past.

What motivated you to run for office? What do you hope to get out of this experience?

I am wanting to get involved on campus so I can have a say in impacting the Drake community. I’m not your typical candidate here at Drake and feel I can give a voice to the students who have differing opinions of those who usually hold office. Through this experience, I hope to change Drake for the better and make it a better educational institution and more exciting campus. I’m honored to be able to run for this position. Best of luck to all the students running for an executive position and thank you to all the students at Drake.