Student senate elections are taking place! Here’s the candidates vying for your vote for student senate president.
There are three people running for the president position within student senate.
First is Cole Brings Plenty. He is Lakota. He has attended Haskell for two semesters, entering his third this coming fall studying in the Indigenous and American Indian Studies program. He grew up in South Dakota on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation. Brings Plenty’s father served as chairman at one point in time, a time where Brings Plenty learned a lot from his father about leadership and being in a leadership position. He’s also held a board member position for a nonprofit back home to help their youth. Brings Plenty believes that passion is what can help grow our university for its betterment.
Calvin Smith has been attending Haskell for a total of three years. He is thankful for all of the people who he’s crossed paths with here. Our community has become like a second home to him. Smith wants to share more of our values as Indigenous students, also including Haskell’s CIRCLE values (CIRCLE stands for Communication, Integrity, Respect, Collaboration, Leadership, and Excellence). He hopes students can create a community that has a stronger bond than what we currently have now. Smith explains that Haskell was originally created to destroy Native American children’s bond to their culture but Haskell has helped keep traditional culture alive. He hopes he can help continue to represent our school and relays how his people, the Dine’, believe to always walk with beauty and live together in harmony. His overall message to create a stronger Haskell.
The final candidate for student senate is William Wilkinson and he is from the Dine’, Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara people. He is in works to complete his Associates in Communication studies by the spring of 2018. This past year, he has served as a Freshman Representative, one that also happens to be the largest class of freshman that our university has seen thus far. He is grateful for all opportunities given by our university. Wilkinson recently has been appointed to be Chairman of the Student Life Committee then also voted to be a board member to the Student Life and Policy Development Committee that is ran by Student Senate’s executive board. Wilkinson believes that because of these experiences working professionally with our staff and faculty have given him the ability to be a successful student senate president if chosen.
