Student Body Elections are will be up on sin.reed.edu starting 9:30 p.m. on Thursday April 23 and will close at midnight on Wednesday April 29. You can hear from the candidates and ask them questions at Elections assembly, Thursday April 23 at 8:00 p.m. in the Student Union.

There are four open seats on the Student Senate, as well as several vanity positions that are being run for.

Candidates for Senator

Alexandra Boyd

Hi! I’m Alex Boyd and I’m a freshman MacNaughton-inhabitant! The core of my campaign is that I stand for marginalized students, and believe that Senate should transparently serve the student body. I dislike that senate elections can be seem like a popularity contest at times, and running for senate is something I take very seriously. If elected, I intend to affect real change regarding inclusivity at Reed.

In my short time at Reed, I have prioritized involvement with student affinity and activist groups. I co-led Hum 110 Takeover in the fall semester.  I also theme coordinate the social justice dorm. I have been involved with Diversify, BASU, and PMP.

As a queer black woman, I know that funding is not always ensured for the Reed student organizations that make me feel safe here. If elected, I will prioritize making funding information centralized and accessible, so that students will know when money is being wasted and when it is being put towards our needs.

I have a blog on which I detail many of my positions on issues, past and present, relevant to the Reed community. There, you can find that I oppose funding poll joke groups, affirm senate’s revision of the DHSM policy, and am skeptical about the student body fee raise. I am critical of CSO conduct and plan to conduct data analysis on the race and gender of AOD recipients. These are just a few of my views and plans regarding Reed policymaking.

Take a look at Boyd4Senate.tumblr.com if you want a more in-depth description of my campaign and my intentions as a candidate. Feel free to messages me if you have any questions or comments regarding my campaign!

Josie Baker

do whatever you want if you believe you have free will

Alex Freitag

Hey! My name’s Alex Freitag and I’m a Political Science sophomore. Let me get right down to it and explain why I’m running for Senate.

I think Reed is a great community full of great people. We face issues pretty regularly and we’re not perfect but we have a community that doesn’t shy away from problems and ultimately is willing to do what it takes to ensure that Reed is a place where people can learn, challenge ideas and be happy. In short, we have people that are passionate about where they live and such a community deserves a system of representation that will not only listen to their concerns but respond to them and work to achieve effective solutions whenever those problems arise.

Unfortunately, we have an administration that has been increasingly willing to disregard student autonomy. We saw this last year when Fossil Free Reed was treated with disrespect and ultimately ignored, the administration choosing to hide behind a veil of ‘political neutrality’. Most recently, the faculty voted down Reed’s sorely needed DHSM policy, the implications of which have yet to be felt. This is a trend we cannot allow to continue. My goal as Senator is to ensure that the DHSM policy is voted in and to expand autonomy for student groups on campus, giving them more access to the resources they need to achieve their goals. My hope is that you’ll join me in this endeavour; we can’t allow ourselves to be sidelined. It’s time to stand up.

Eliotte Garling

Hi I’m Eliotte and I’m a rising sophomore and a ~prospective~ chemistry major. I want to improve the safety and autonomy of the Reed College community through awareness and education of issues including substance use. Many people today take SSRI and MAOI (anti-anxiety/ anti-depressant) medications, but there is very little awareness that mixing these medications with other substances, can lead to a distorted mental status/ serotonin syndrome, which can be fatal. This is only one example of the kind of information that students should actively receive!!

How? Regardless of your own experience with substances (alcohol, drugs, etc.). there’s no question that they are present, and that they influence the safety of our community. Although the SSDP has done a great job of maintaining access to supplements and supplying a testing kit, there’s still more that can be done to improve the safety of the Reed College community. As student body senator I would like to remove the stigma from substance use education, and maintain anonymity to those who want to learn more. In addition, I would like to increase access to testing kits.

Why? Reed has had a long-standing association with substances but this reputation shouldn’t diminish Reedies’ access to harm prevention and educational resources. By improving the safety of Reedies and our community and de stigmatizing issues surrounding substance use, I believe that it will be a catalyst to allow more Reedies to feel safe to develop their voice and make Reed a safer community for everyone.

Pedro Henriques da Silva

Hey. It’s probably been a while since you even thought about the College Apps that led you to the predicament you are in on this fine April Day. Between the confetti, the reactor, the pamphlets — whatever they told you, somehow, they won. You’re here. And as you’re sitting there, reading this, I’ll bet you’ve considered, at least once, whether you made the right decision.

And, I’ll bet you’ve been thankful, at least once, that you made this decision. And, I bet you’ve wondered, at least twice, what the hell is going on. Here’s the thing; whether you love it here, or hate it here, or really don’t care, you have a say in what goes down. That’s one of the things that sets Reed apart from anywhere else. Theoretically. But recently, that hasn’t always turned out to be the case. That changes as soon as you decide it does. Because in running for Senate what I think matters is that our community is living up to its potential. Potential to be a place where student initiatives aren’t ignored, but championed. A place where you feel free to do the shit that matters to you, without feeling excluded or limited.

What we should be working on is making sure the pamphlets or slogans or promises or coincidences that brought us all here are the reality—not the ideal. And as Senator, that’s what

I’m promising; that a “Vote for Pedro” is a vote for you.

Yours truly,

Pedro Henriques da Silva

Kate Hilts

Hey y’all, I’m Kate, she/her/hers, and I’ve been one of yr loyal senators for two semesters now. I’ve been through two funding circuses/funding hells, about twenty five public senate meetings, and almost thirty finance committees. I’m also a big SB gov nerd who reads old minutes for fun and has institutional memory ~for miles~.

I’ve served as Conference and Event Planning liaison, physical plant liaison, member of sustainability committee, social media liaison, and DHSM liaison to the CAC. I’ve also helped write and pass: the firearms policy, the animal policy, changes to the elections bylaws, the unappointment bylaw, the Honor Council code changes, the JBoard code changes, and that goddamn DHSM. I’ve seen the implementation of the smoking policy and SOS grants, and voted to raise the SB fee. I’ve also been the one posting “Senate in 5 Bullet Points or Less” all over FB, somewhat running the Senate FB, Twitter, and Instagram, so if the constant posting annoys the hell out of you I’m sorry! But I’m just *that* committed to transparency. (It is, after all, part of the platform I ran on last time.) Also got several more cigarette butt holders placed around campus, and ~much more~ but I got limited space. So.

If you *re-elect* me as your Senator, this year I plan to:

1. raise SB wages
2. implement need-aware grants through SOS
3. make sustainability committee a more lean/mean/green machine
4. wade through the second rewrite of the DHSM that may indeed be coming our way
5. play more Drake in the exec office

I’m committed to preserving student body autonomy, fighting that admin ratchet, and being a fierce queer feminist advocate for students. Plz email me or FB message me with any questions/comments/insults/puns on my name* <3

*bonus points for doing two at once.

Thomas Hoang

My name is Thomas Hoang and I am wrapping up my freshman year at Reed. Portland, Oregon is my hometown but I grew up in Saigon, Vietnam and immigrated to America in 2007.

I would like to run for Senator.

Seeing students take charge and create clubs, organize events, and lead discussion amazes me and I want to ensure that they get the money they need to do something awesome for themselves and the Reed community. However, I would also like to work on better accountability for the use of student body fund so that the waste of money is limited.

Thank you very much for your considerations!

Please Vote!

Dylan Holmes

Sup Reed, I’m Dylan Holmes. You might have seen me serving coffee or sleeping in the library every now and then, and now here I am asking YOU to vote for ME to be one of your Student Body Senators.

Here’s a bullet point list of what I stand for and what I want to help facilitate (even if only a little bitty bit) to keep this place chill:

• Making Reed more accommodating to high-need, low-SES students. The low-income student population is too often ignored or only used as part of a political argument by the administration and faculty, and in my own experience Reed is a very difficult place to plunge head-first into without the specialized education and experience that many other Reed students had already received prior to coming here.
• Pushing back against the increased policing power of Community Safety. In recent years the administration has caved into federal pressure and ramped up dorm walkthroughs, CSO presence at Reed events, and CSO directives, which erodes the trust Reed students place in the college to not act frivolously or out of unfounded fear. I like to think that the Honor Principle is more dynamic than, “It is dishonorable to break the law,” and I want to see that reflected in how Reed engages its students. We should be striving for a model of restorative justice. We should be asking who we are protecting. (i.e. NO NARCS)
• Making way for areas of study that have been historically denied academic legitimacy (i.e. critical race theory, gender and sexuality studies). In 2015 it’s impossible to ignore the cries for a shift in what we consider to be a liberal arts education, especially given the events that have transpired this school year, and I would like to do my part to make sure that Reed is making way for new voices in its curriculum.
• Accommodating the needs of the Division of the Arts. The Performing Arts Building is wonderful and we’re on track for a new dance major, but integrating the arts into such a classically-minded school is a constant challenge that will always need new voices.
• Supporting and expanding the work of groups like Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Safer Sex Society in providing education and resources to students about health in a non-patronizing manner, in addition to examining how our school handles mental health problems and assuring that an adequate institutional support network is in place for students in need.
• In general, supporting and facilitating the implementation of the recommendations made in the working groups of the Ad-Hoc Strategic Priorities Committee, including but not limited to GETTING A GOD DAMN FILM STUDIES PROGRAM.

These are just a few of my pet issues, but if you have any questions at all, or you just want to tell me about your crushes and heartbreaks, feel free to e-mail me at dylholmes@reed.edu or catch me at the Paradox on a slow shift. I love you, I wanna treat you right, I wanna make your heart go (MIAMI) BOOM BOOM

Miranda Mishan

Dear Student Body,

My name is Miranda Mishan and I’m a sophomore Political Science major from Dallas, Texas. I’m running for student body senate and I would love to be your senator. Since being at Reed it has become clear to me that in order to effectively make change and maintain this mysterious thing we call student body autonomy, the student body needs leaders who are determined, ambitious, and willing to fight hard for what they love. I believe that I embody these characteristics, and as senator would successfully serve you and our community.

I care deeply about honor, inclusivity, and having a good time. I would work hard to make your voice heard, and I am prepared to take on the laborious and not-so-sexy process of policy writing in order to translate your opinions into actions.

Come talk to me. Stop me on the way to class, in commons, or shoot me an email. We can share our opinions on recent goings-on, you can tell me all of your hopes and dreams, and I’ll listen.

Vote for me. I’ll make you proud.

<3 <3 <3

Miranda

Diego Sosa-Coba

Waddup, so this is Diego, sophomore doin’ Math-Econ. Still not totally sure what a blurb is but hey, I’m just here telling my thoughts about the student body. I don’t claim to have expert knowledge on everything that goes on at Reed, most of the time I’m caught unaware that we have so many cool things going.

From Renn Fayre to those funky Saturday night dances, we all know how to have a good time. Yet there’s always people in the background setting up and allocating these funds so that we can enjoy the ideas of other people. I get that we all don’t have the time to commit to these things, what with studying and working, working out, whatevs. We should all at least be aware of what’s going on in our community, which is largely part of the reason why

I want to be a senator. While I admit that I have little experience in these types of organizations, I believe that the best way to learn something is to just sky-dive your way into it. Metaphorically of course, unless I can get on that Gray Fund trip.

Yup, that’s me I guess. I’m looking to get involved in this awesome machinery that is our student body, so peace~

Diego Sosa-Coba

Minister of Propaganda

Will Jones

Having controlled the media (as a Quest editor) for about a year and controlled elections (as a SIN webmaster) for almost a year, it seems like about time I run for this position and consolidate all my roles into my one fancy fun title: the Minister of Propaganda. If you are familiar with my recent work (“destroy capitalism, practice witchcraft, become lesbians!”), and want to see more of it, vote for me!

Sorcerer Supreme

Saul Chasin

Please won’t you be my neighbor? Faithfully protecting Reed College from extra-dimensional invasion (and peacefully assimilating extra-dimensional immigrants) since Fall 2014.

Ze-Who-Must-Not-Be-Names

Veda Kreth (Ze/Zem/Zirs)

Ze/zem/zirs pronouns and Harry Potter puns make a very happy genderqueer student.