I am very excited to come to you for the first time as your newly elected student body vice president.

My role is primarily to help students confront the issues that affect them on campus by connecting them with their official elected voice, the Illinois Student Senate. Above all, I am looking forward to interacting more closely with students and facing the task of improving our campus in any way we can.

My biggest goal of the semester is promoting student elections in the spring. Each year, less than 10 percent of our students vote in the elections that decide who represents them in student government. With the help of our Public Relations Committee, I would like to work to get the word out about student elections and improve voter turnout. I want to help students become more aware of the prominent issues on campus and of whom they can go to address these issues.

Another thing I would like to get working on is expanding the use of our social media to gather student input. We want to hear from students. We would love to know which problems concern students the most. I think it is safe to say that the average college student’s primary way of getting information is through Facebook and Twitter. I’d like to use these sites as a forum to hear from our constituents how we can better represent them.

As I said, I am thrilled to serve as your student body vice president this semester, and I hope that you won’t hesitate to contact me in any way. Come to ISS with any questions and concerns. After all, everyone here at ISS is here to represent you.

Jenny Baldwin, vice president external of the Illinois Student Senate