Swanson and Powell want to bring respect back to GSB

Tara Deering
February 13, 1997

Editor’s note: This is the fourth of five profiles on the slates running for Government of the Student Body president and vice president. The profiles will run through this week.

Todd Swanson and Amber Powell say they know what changes need to be made to bring respect back to the Government of the Student Body.

Swanson, 21, is a junior in accounting and finance from Johnston. Powell, 22, is a senior in consumer food science from Olin.

Swanson has been involved in GSB for two years. He said he’s seen how GSB works and is now in a position to make things happen. He is the finance director in GSB President Adam Gold’s cabinet.

Powell is member of Alpha Omicron Phi Sorority. She has also been involved with GSB for two years. Powell said her position as an off-campus senator makes her qualified to run the Senate, the primary duty of the GSB vice president.

Communication is the key in bringing respect back to GSB, Swanson and Powell said.

“It seems in the past year that GSB hasn’t been communicating with the students,” Swanson said.

“The role of GSB is to be the eyes and ears of the students,” Powell added.

Swanson and Powell said if elected they would address the issue of student-run teacher evaluations. Swanson said the teacher evaluations wouldn’t be a critique of the teacher, but rather a compilation of information about teaching techniques and other information.

“It would be easy put on a Web page so students could look up their teacher’s name and course to find out what their teacher will be like,” Swanson said.

Swanson said past problems with getting student-run teacher evaluations revolve around a perception that they would be “something bad” for teachers. “This is something that will benefit the students and the teachers,” he said.

Another issue Swanson and Powell said they will address is establishing a concrete set of rules to determine specific weather conditions that need to be met in order to cancel classes.

If his system is initiated, students would know ahead of time when classes are canceled or delayed, Swanson said. Swanson and Powell did say the university has done better this school year by informing students of cancellations, but improvements need to be made.

“There are other schools that have systems similar to this,” Powell said. “We first plan on contacting them and then the administration.”

Swanson and Powell said if elected they would also address the issue of keeping Cy-Ride’s Orange Route free, including the Maple-Willow-Larch bus stop, where boarders must currently pay 25 cents to ride.

Student parking is also a concern. Swanson and Powell said building two-level parking ramps in certain areas may be a way to improve parking on campus.

“If you have a free bus system that eliminates all the parking problems,” Powell said.

And by large, Swanson said, GSB needs a broader view.

“GSB typically seems to take a short-sided and single view on problems, and we would like to take a more general and bigger view,” Swanson said. “We try to take the approach of what’s the bigger problem, and we try to solve it.”

Where They Stand: Swanson & Powell

Todd Swanson is a junior in accounting and finance from Johnston. Amber Powell is a senior in consumer food science from Olin.

* Public Relations

– Have a director of student information who will talk more with students and media

– Encourage GSB members to talk more with students

* Teacher Evaluations

– Produce a Web page that provides teacher information

– Work to change perceptions about student-run evaluations

* School cancellations

– Standardized system for class cancellation systems

– Improve notification of class cancellations due to weather

* Cy-Ride