Two slates have announced that they are running for the Residence Halls Association president and vice president. The slates are current President Chris Rucker and Vice President Caleb Krenning, who are up for re-election, as well as Zack Folk and Lindsay Weber for president and vice president, respectively.
A mass email will be sent to residents who will have from midnight to 11:59 p.m. Thursday, March 1, to place their vote, Weber said.
In order to run, each slate was required to get a petition with 50 signatures that were verified by an RHA committee. The slates announced in congress Monday that they were running and are currently in the campaigning stage of the election.
During the campaigning time the candidates can visit hall governments, talk to residents and stuff mailboxes with information. Campaigning will end Thursday of RHA Week, which is the last week of February. The winner will be announced at the RHA Ball on Friday, March 2, Folk said.
Folk and Weber might be new to the executive office of RHA, but not to government on campus. Folk said RHA has become his passion, though he is still a freshman.
His running mate, sophomore Weber, also described RHA as a real passion. Their platform focuses on increasing awareness of RHA. They want residents to be more involved as well as expand hall and floor government importance and cultivate leadership skills, Weber said.
One of the ways they want to do this is by starting a bi-weekly newsletter to inform residents about RHA, Folk said.
“Everyone should know what they (RHA) do,” Folk said.
Another idea the Folk-Weber slate has is to create a student staff forum. Folk is the treasurer of Flava Hall Government, which is made up of the Responsibility, Discovery, Respect and Excellence residence halls.
Folk said he has had difficulties getting residents involved in spending student funds. Each floor and hall has funds for the residents to spend, but Folk said it is hard get them involved enough to spend the funds. The slate also wants the younger residents to realize that RHA is something they can be involved in.
This is the second year that Chris Rucker and Caleb Krenning have run together, a tradition they have been following since they were freshmen. Rucker said he is excited about potentially serving another term because he has seen growth and more potential in RHA the past year and has enjoyed its progress.
Krenning shares a similar sentiment and said he feels they did a successful job last semester.
The two have some projects they have just begun and want to continue working on, Rucker said. Rucker also said their slate is built on their goals from last year.
The Rucker-Krenning platform includes equipment checkout from the floor government, regular events for residents in order to build community and branching out in order to improve the connection with other organizations such as the Missouri Students Association, Krenning said.
Rucker said RHA and Missouri Students Association implemented trayless dining and want to continue expanding on sustainability on campus in the coming term. The slate also wants to increase retention rates with hall and floor governments and residents, as well as improve communication among hall governments. Rucker said he wants them to be viewed as the approachable slate with the to-do list.
Rucker said RHA has been restructured in a way that gives less money to floor governments and more to RHA.
