Student Senate President reflects on a challenging term

Student Senate President Amos Mainville announced that he will not be running for re-election.

“I have had my time in Senate and feel it is time to pass the torch,” Mainville wrote to the Fiat Lux. Mainville, a junior engineering student, feels like he has a lot of work on his plate and thinks stepping down from his presidential duties will allow him more time to advance in his professional responsibilities. He thinks of his term as President as a successful one.

“In my opinion it was [a success]," he said. "While I did not move mountains within Senate, I did elsewhere. I was able to represent the student body through the first round of academic budget cuts and helped to prevent the complete elimination of programs important to students.”

Mainville also mentioned the large accomplishment of establishing the Student Lounge in Powell Campus Center as one of his major successes, but wished he could have done more to change to image of the Senate itself. He did not want Senate to be viewed as “that weekly mandatory meeting that people have to drag themselves to,” but more of a meeting that people want to attend, where they could “ share their comments for the betterment of the Alfred community as a whole.”

When asked to give advice to the new presidential candidates, Mainville wrote, “I have two pieces of advice. First, listen to the students. They know what can make Alfred better. Next, make sure the student's voices are heard. Knock on doors, make phone calls and attend meetings with strong clear arguments, and the administration will listen. We have been successful in saving our small programs thus far and need to continue keeping Alfred true to the students.”