“We want Senate to work for you! To accomplish this, Senate needs an Executive Council with experience making change at Guilford.”The language of experience and change worked together to lift Joe Pelcher, Dana Hamdan, Will Vormelker, Hannah Kennedy into office for 2008, defeating Dan Jimenez, Nancy Klosteridis, Chris Pugliese, and Alex Knox.

Out of the 437 students that voted, over 60 percent elected the winning ticket on March 31.

Using their combined 23 years of experience in student government and ability to accomplish effective change, they will focus on dealing with student-suggested concerns and managing senate meetings effectively.

Relying on student input for their platform, the elects want to concentrate on a myriad of suggestions and concerns students have about the Guilford community.

Changing parking rules, creating a 24/7 health clinic, and installing bicycle shelters are among these requests.

“We’re not making promises about these things happening, but they are things we will definitely address,” said Pelcher, president-elect, when asked if these ideas were realistic.

In response to student wishes, the new executive council plans to find more ways to advertise campus events and issues next year, having had fun campaigning with comic strip style and Harry Potter themed posters.

“Students focused on wanting more advertising for events because nobody really reads The Buzz,” said Hamdan, vice-president-elect.

Another project the group will explore is utilizing the approximate $300,000 to $400,000 in a fund made up of unused student activity fees traditional students pay for in tuition every year.

“It’s fairly inevitable that every year clubs don’t use all the money they are granted,” said Vormelker, treasurer-elect. “We want to use the money in this endowment that has built up over time for long-term improvements that will benefit current and future students.”

The state of senate faces organizational problems, which the team plans to sort out in reforming the training process for senators.

“A lot of times meeting time flies by and senators have repeated themselves over and over or they aren’t prepared,” Hamdan said.

“People should come in knowing what’s going on – that should be commonplace and people should be held accountable for that,” said Kennedy, secretary-elect.

About to start their own training process for Executive Council, these elected officials are eager to learn from the current ticket.

“One reason I decided to run is because I really admire the current ticket and I’m looking forward them sitting down with us to explain how they run things,” Pelcher said. “Their advice and insight will allow us to start where they are finishing as opposed to starting fresh.”

When these students first decided to run together, three of the candidates initially wanted to be president. After navigating that issue, their motto became “we are executives first and positions second”.

“It was awesome that everyone wanted to step up and take that role,” Kennedy said. “It makes me confident in our leadership for next year.