The Residence Halls Association presidential election will feature two slates as options for voters this week. Residents will receive an e-mail Thursday that will include a link to the polling site.
**Chris Rucker and Caleb Krenning**
Rucker, a sophomore finance major, has served as RHA vice president in the months since former president Rachel Feuerborn left her position in fall 2010. Krenning has been a committee chairperson for Residential Living and is the Events and Planning chairman, putting him in charge of hosting most RHA-sponsored events on campus.
The slate has proposed what they call their “to-do list,” instead of an official platform.
“We refer to our platform as our ‘to-do list,’ because we want to fulfill promises,” Rucker said. “All of the things on our list were brought up to us by students so we don’t want to have empty promises.”
The slate’s “to-do list” includes goals the slate said will benefit the residents.
“Caleb fought to have smaller trays in Rollins and we want to continue our sustainability practices by equalizing the recycling in all of the halls and one of our goals, that Sustainability Chair Taylor Dukes is helping with, is getting a recycling bin in each residence hall room,” Rucker said.
Rucker also said he and Caleb would like to increase communication with the hall governments on campus by hosting quarterly hall government forums, increasing transparency with the media, continuing to better relations with the Legion of Black Collegians and the Missouri Students Association and increase representative retention.
“We want to offer more services to students, like we did this year with the linen service, so we thought we could offer a summer storage option and micro-fridge rental as well as some other things for students, so they don’t have to drag all of that stuff home and then back to campus,” Rucker said.
Rucker said they would like to also increase involvement on the national and regional levels, by attending conferences with other Residence Halls Associations.
**Jared Grafman and Taeler De Haes:**
Grafman, who has held several positions within RHA in his five semesters with the organization and who ran for the presidency last year, chose freshman Taeler De Haes as his vice president.
Grafman said he and De Haes’ platform includes goals for building better ties with media, getting to-go boxes in all of the dining halls on campus and building a better relationship with Greek Life through communication. Da Haes, a columnist for The Maneater, said although they would only really be able to reach the pledge classes, they would like to be able to spread the word about RHA.
“We would like to see to-go boxes in all of the dining halls and longer hours with more food options,” Grafman said. “We would also like to have a better relationship with Greek Life, and be able to host more programs for students to show up and enjoy and have a better sense of community.”
Grafman, a senior staff member of The Maneater, said he feels the residence halls communities are restricted to their hall and he would like to see students branch out and understand that there is more to campus than just their group of residents.
“We are also going to get better washers and dryers in the halls, so students are not having to dry their clothes multiple times,” De Haes said. “The price may increase, but in the long run, it will be worth it, because instead of having to pay to dry your clothes multiple times, you can just do it once.”
De Haes said her slate would like to increase involvement with MSA and she feels that with their involvement in MSA and other organizations on campus, she and Grafman will be able to best improve this line of communication.
“We also have good ties in campus communication, because both Jared and I work for the Maneater, and I am a reporter for (KCOU 88.1/FM),” De Haes said.
