The votes have been tallied in the student senate elections.
Junior Russel Ferguson, an English and Spanish major, has been elected president, and sophomore sculpture major Tess Bunker has been elected vice president. Thomas Beneke was a write-in for the treasurer position, and will likely be elected, as no one ran for the post.
President-elect Russel Ferguson
The student senate will vote to approve the election results today.
Ferguson, currently chair of the public relations committee for the senate, hopes to focus on off-campus housing and parking issues as well as student retention rates while in office.
He said that off-campus housing in the area is becoming a significant problem for students, because the housing Moorhead has to offer near campus isn’t that great.
The Moorhead City Council has approached Ferguson and the student senate with the possibility of building a small community of housing for area college students who would like to live off campus, but don’t have viable options available to them.
Though in its preliminary stages, the plan would likely include housing along Main Street and have a shuttle bus available to students, running from the housing sites to MSUM multiple times every hour.
Ferguson said the city council’s proposal would alleviate both off-campus housing and parking issues.
“I think that if we could solve both of those problems with one solution that would be great, but it’s all a matter of getting students aware of what’s going on and what we want to do,” he said.
In order to increase communication among the senate, students and administration, Ferguson and Bunker intend to run a connected and goal-oriented senate.
“To be unified you have to function well internally,” Bunker said. “That’s really the role of vice president — making sure everything internally operates well so that it can be effective.”
The duo is confident that by focusing on setting and meeting goals, and with strong communication, priorities will be better met and the senate will continue to move forward to tackle upcoming issues.
BY DANIELLE REBEL
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