AMANDA DEDIE
Assistant News Editor
The votes are in, and the new Student Association presidents and representatives have been announced. The new class presidents for the 2015-2016 school year are Joshua Ranney, freshman class; Mary Kay Taylor, sophomore class; Eduvijez Sanchez, junior class and Stephanie Willis, senior class.
A total of 157 students voted out of approximately 4,800 students on campus.
Running unopposed, Joshua Ranney, a political science major with a concentration in American politics and the now-president of the freshman class, has previous experience in representing student bodies. He has formerly been the student representative on the Niagara-Wheatfield school board, as well as his class of 2015 vice president.
During his time as the freshman class president, Ranney hopes to make what he calls “an inspiring impact on the SUNY Fredonia campus.”
“In my time as president, I hope to launch the Class of 2019 into a successful and notable start to our college careers and our future,” said Ranney via email.
Mary Kay Taylor, a history major with business administration and Russian studies minors and the new sophomore class president, after running a close race against her opponent, said, “I ran for class president because I like to get involved in issues on-campus pertaining to my fellow campus members. I hope to accomplish the goal of relaying the students’ voice to the university members, and hoping to give the class of 2018 a voice during [the] duration of my presidency.”
Winning in a landslide vote, Eduvijez Sanchez, a double major in international studies and public relations with minors in Italian and pre-law advisement, states that the decision to run for class president came with the gratitude she has toward Fredonia for the opportunities she’s been presented.
“Since I stepped foot on this campus, Fredonia has constantly been giving to me. Giving me an education, giving me a chance at my dreams, giving me lifelong friends and a place to call home,” said Sanchez. “My sophomore year I decided it was time to give back, so I joined the Student Association to help represent peers in my class. Deciding to run for junior class president was me taking another opportunity to give back to a campus and my fellow peers that have given me so much.”
As for her hopes for the next year as junior class president, Sanchez said, “What I hope to accomplish is earning the title of this position. I hope to represent the junior class well and in a way that makes them proud. I also want to bring the class more together before it’s too late and we are already seniors looking at the finish line.”
Finally, there’s Stephanie Willis — a senior public relations major with a triple minor in leadership, visual arts and new media, and business administration and the new senior class president — who also won in a landslide election.
During her freshman year, Willis was a constituted group representative, which led to becoming a class representative. When she was a junior she became class president for the first time, which she says was a natural progression into running for senior class president.
“[I] want to do this position because it’s all the things I’ve been preparing for throughout my past three years here,” said Willis. “It’s just such an honor to have been chosen for that position. I know I ran for it, and I know that’s what I wanted, but that other people agreed that I would be good for that, and the amount of people in our class that have come up and said, ‘I’m so excited for you to do this, because I want you to do this,’ I think that’s part of the best thing.”
As class president for the next year, and not unlike the other class presidents, Willis has several ideas for the senior class.
“I’m hoping that the programs and the things we can develop within our class and as a senior challenge committee are going to be engaging and effective and things that people in the senior class want to be a part of.”