Incumbent Student Body President Matt Jarvis and Vice President Emily Kinner will face off against presidential candidate Alex Parlock and vice presidential candidate Daniel Parlock in the 2017 student government election.

Incumbent Vice President Emily Kinner is a junior from Barboursville, West Virginia and is double majoring in broadcast journalism and political science. Kinner is also proud of the student development this past year. If elected, Kinner wants to have even more interactions with students to gain a better understanding of their wants, needs and personal beliefs and how she could help make their college experience even better.

What do you want the student body to know about you personally?

A lot of times student don’t know what we do up here. I want them to know that we work hard and we work hard for them so they can have the best college experience while they are here. Whether that’s going to several meetings during the day between classes or planning programs. Last semester we put on more programs than we have had in the last five years combined. We are putting these things on to benefit students and we work hard so students have the best experience.

Was there something specific that inspired you to run?

I just love being able to help students. Being in this office you see a lot of people who do not know much about the area or the campus. Being able to connect with them and get them involved on campus is what I personally love and enjoy. Getting to help students in any shape or form like allocating funding for their organization so they get to do fun things or showing them where Smith Hall is, just stuff like that. I really enjoy being involved with students and that is why I wanted to run again.

What plans do you have if you are elected?

I agree with Matt. Really I want to advocate for students. This past year was a presidential election. That is something you don’t really expect coming into office and the things you have to deal with. Things come at you that you don’t expect. Being able to handle the situations in the student body and being able to help the student body to the best of your ability is something we want to be able to do.

What do you believe is the biggest issues that Marshall is facing and how do you plan to combat it?

Sometimes we see a lot of differing opinions and I think one of those things is learning to respect one another no matter what those opinions may be. Loving one another and understanding someone else’s perspective. It is perfectly ok not to agree with someone else’s opinion, but everyone is entitled to their opinion. It is being able to understand where they are coming from. It is being able to understand that people have grown up differently and people have different background stories. Just being able to relate to them, get along and respect one another. We have really changed since we have been in office. This semester we have a great Senate that is able to get along and push for things to get accomplished.

Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you believe the student body should know?

We are going to work as hard as we can to make sure students have a great experience. Whether that is the Inter-Faith Prayer Room or whatever else. That is something we are going to accomplish this next year if we get elected.

Sadie Helmick can be contacted at [email protected].