Based on her concrete initiatives regarding diversity and increased communication throughout campus, the Wheel endorses College junior Ye Ji Kim as the next Student Government Association (SGA) vice president.
Although Kim has no prior experience within SGA specifically, we feel that her time served as a divisional treasurer of College Council (CC) and on the President’s Commission on Race and Ethnicity makes her a qualified candidate who can effectively deal with a variety of student concerns.
Kim aims to promote racial, religious and cultural awareness through a mandatory diversity-training program for student leaders, which would also be open to members of the larger student body and the administration. The Wheel endorsement committee believes that this centerpiece of Kim’s platform is a necessary and very feasible initiative, especially in our current climate regarding diversity.
Though it was a close call on who would receive the Wheel endorsement for this position, Kim’s specific, practical ideas and explicit awareness of relevant problems on campus won over the majority of the endorsement committee. However, we do advise Kim to create a more organized plan of action for the ideas on her platform if elected.
Kim has been an active member of the Student Hardship Fund, which is a monetary committee that aims to help students who experience sudden financial emergencies, as well as New Student Orientation and the implementation of this year’s Social Justice Week. With these varied experiences behind her, Kim expresses an enthusiasm for improving the Emory community that makes her a strong candidate for SGA vice president.
In her platform, Kim proposes specific, innovative ideas for increasing open communication and dialogue on campus, including hosting forums and public events to discuss modern social justice, race, religion and sexual assault.
She has already implemented some ways of improving communication within student government, including setting up weekly office hours where student leaders and members of the student body can voice their concerns.
Kim also hopes to focus on the internal workings of SGA, allowing her to enhance the role of committees in responding to student concerns. She wants the central leadership of SGA to act as a support system for the organization as a whole and to make a stronger effort to reach out to committees, which would then communicate their projects to the student body and larger Emory community.
Like other candidates, Kim plans to increase transparency and communication between SGA and the student body, but she also wants to hold events similar to office hours, during which students could give real feedback on their feelings about SGA’s initiative and projects, which is unique to her platform.
As a CC officer, Kim has a strong sense of dedication and passion, as well as a straightforward and direct manner of speaking, which we feel to be important in communicating to large groups. We hope Kim will enhance these qualities if elected to this leadership role.
The endorsement committee feels that Kim’s goals are ones that are very pertinent to current student concerns in the Emory community and that are realistically attainable within a year’s time, and these qualities, coupled with her passion for bettering the University, make her a strong candidate for SGA vice president.
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