NEWS

The campaigning, the complaining and the controversy are over.

On May 12, nearly three months after students casted their votes, the top leaders for Student Government’s executive branch were sworn in inside the Marleen & Harold Forkas Alumni Center at the Boca campus.

This includes the installment of the student body president, vice president and the governors for each campus.

Starting this summer until the end of the spring semester, they’ll be making decisions on the students’ behalf and launching initiatives to improve FAU—and they’ll get paid between $8,000 and $12,500 from the activity fees students pay each semester.

Below you can read about who they are and what they want to achieve.

Student Body President Ayden Maher and Vice President Robert Huffman:

Maher was reelected, becoming the second person in the university’s history to achieve this.

Maher said that one of his biggest accomplishments during his previous presidential term was helping to change the culture at FAU, something which he plans on continuing.

“It’s risky for a leader to say because it’s not a result that you can deliver physically, but when you go to a basketball game or when you go to our club house, you really can see the difference,” Maher said.

On the downside, he mentioned he hasn’t been able to reach out to the partner campuses as much as he would have liked—a goal he has set for this new term.

“I’m hoping to get a video conference communication system installed in all student government suites and their offices, that way we can communicate with each other,” Maher said

Robert Huffman, worked as director of Council of Student Organizations (COSO) last semester helping to allocate funds to the different student clubs and organizations.

Together, they said they want to lobby against tuition increases, push for more academic advising to increase FAU’s graduation rate, create better parking options and provide more support for Greek Life.

Boca campus Governor Ryan Ebanks:

Ebanks worked as SG’s Boca campus treasurer for the past two semesters before being elected governor.

He said he will use the contacts he has fostered as treasurer to improve communication between the different programs under Student Affairs in the Boca campus.

“I want them to be more cohesive. I want directors to help each other, to communicate better,” Ebanks said. “Encouraging the members of each program to actually talk to each other.”

Jupiter campus Governor Alex Lange:

Lange had already served as Jupiter governor from summer to the beginning of fall 2009.

One of his goals is for this term is to maintain green spaces.

“We do have two big recreational fields…those are big important parts of our campus. The university was planning on building in these two fields, so the first thing would be continuing old projects, making sure our recreational fields are open and maintained properly,” Lange said.

Lange also wants to increase school spirit on the Jupiter campus.

“I want to encourage my cabinet … to also work on weekend programming, doing it more than once or twice a month, doing it almost every weekend.”

Broward campuses Governor Helen Pferdehirt:

Pferdehirt said she wants to make students in Davie and Fort Lauderdale more involved in the University.

“I think the biggest issue right now is that since we are smaller campuses we don’t feel our voices being heard,” Pferdehirt said. “I would really like to work hard with the main student government and with student affairs …  so that we feel that connection with the university.”

Pferdehirt worked with the Broward Program Board for a year and a half. Her passion for politics goes back to high school, where she was student body vice president for her class.

Treasure Coast campus Governor Shaunte Robinson:

Robinson ran uncontested and won reelection for the governor position.

She plans to continue the projects she started during her previous term, which include a student discount program she started last summer and the creation of a student lounge.

 “I want try to make it bigger and make it better,” Robinson said about the lounge.

Robinson also said she want to work on developing new traditions on the Treasure Coast campus to help make a FAU a more traditional university.