The Honors College Assembly will be selecting new officers next Tuesday and Wednesday in Nott Hall.
HCA president Hallie Paul will leave office as the first president of the new organization and said she hopes the candidates for president will remember what the purpose of HCA is as he or she prepares to take office in the fall.
“One of the purposes of HCA is to create a sense of community within the Honors College to ultimately pour into the University,” she said.
The candidates for HCA president are sophomores Sarah Hughes and Michael Forst, both of whom are currently involved in HCA.
Forst is majoring in economics and English and currently serves as the HCA director of student life and has developed his campaign based on three pillars.
“First, I want the HCA to serve as an advocate for Honors College students to be able to hear their concerns,” he said. “My second pillar is to increase the scale and scope of programming within HCA, and, lastly, I want to use my experience to showcase to students that I am qualified to hold this position.”
Some of the things Forst said he’d like to do to increase membership involvement are to generate an online form to become involved in HCA and utilize the newsletter to get the word out about events.
Forst has been a part of the formation of HCA since spring 2011 and said he’s been pleased with its growth over the past year.
“I have watched the current president execute eloquently the office of president and since the formation of the HCA it has become something I really care about which is why I decided to run,” he said.
“I believe there is a culture within the Honors College for academic success and I care about HCA and what it stands for,” he said
Hughes is majoring in political science and currently serves as the event coordinator for the civic engagement branch of HCA. Her campaign is based on the three “C’s”— connect, create and collaborate.
“I will ensure equality of opportunity for all Honors College students to utilize our resources and create activities catered especially to their unique interests,” she said.
Some of the things Hughes said she wants to do to increase involvement is to encourage HCA to connect within the established leadership and with Honors College students to promote involvement.
“I am committed to creating an Honors College Assembly that is about and for the students and have been involved in the Honors College since the first week of my freshman year, which is why I decided to run,” she said.
Hughes said she not only plans to improve the HCA from within but plans to make the assembly truly representative of the Honors College student population by promoting the thing honors students have in common— their academic courses.
An issue within the Honors College that Paul said the candidates should be thinking about is continuing to promote diversity.
“I will work within our current structure of the diversity branch of Honors College Assembly in promoting events and reaching out to all corners of campus, including the already established and successful groups that promote diversity,” Hughes said.
Forst said he is also concerned about diversity and would work with the diversity committee to approach the issue from all sides.
“We want students to feel at home in the Honors College, and I hope to help them gain that feeling through positive programming that aids at students that can transfer into the Honors College and make efforts to work with the directors to promote diversity,” he said.
Paul said the HCA has been engaging students that previously were not, but there is still work to be done.
