By Vince Gasparini | September 30, 2024
The University at Albany Student Association Senate elected Senator Sidney Wheeler to serve as this year’s Vice Chair at last week’s meeting on Wednesday (9/25).
Wheeler ran against Senators Joleen Chen, Marcos Perez and Trevor Pettit, who each stated their cases to their fellow Senators and went through several rounds of questioning before Senators debated and subsequently cast their votes.
From left to right: Senators Joleen Chen, Marcos Perez, Sidney Wheeler and Trevor Pettit.
Photo Credit: Vince Gasparini / The ASP
The Vice Chair’s role is to assist the Senate Chair in carrying out their duties; Wheeler also ran for the position last year, but was beaten by Senator Sarah Jamil.
“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Wheeler told the ASP after the election. “I’m excited to get to work with everything, a lot of big plans, and I’m just super excited to work with the Chair.”
Wheeler, a junior with a year of prior Senate experience, has previously served as Chair of the Community Engagement and Outreach Committee. While addressing Senators during the elections, he laid out his vision for how he would carry the office of Vice Chair.
His first point stressed the importance of involving SA members with work in the community and helping new members gain a better understanding of how the organization operates.
“Our presence in the community is important, and we need to integrate ourselves,” Wheeler said as he addressed the Senate. “We also need to integrate all of you, make sure you know what’s going on, how to do it. I want to make sure that you all feel comfortable.”
Wheeler also stressed the importance of the Senate’s responsibility in addressing the needs of their constituents.
“We need to hold ourselves accountable as Senators and as Student Association officials to make sure that our job is getting done and that we’re aware of the ways that we can do that,” he told the ASP.
His final main platform position was to help the Senate follow through on their goals and understand how they can better achieve them.
“People have ideas for bylaws but don’t understand how to get there, people want certain things out of our administration but don’t take the steps to talk to them and to find a common ground,” Wheeler said. “I would like to help all of you know where those resources are and to get you to the forefront of that goal and to achieve it with you.”
Senate Chair Ethan Madappatt expressed confidence in Wheeler as the new Vice Chair, as the two have been friends and SA colleagues for several years.
“We both have supported each other through school, through tough times and definitely in our time at SA,” he told the ASP. “Both of us got our feet wet in SA around the same time, and it’s been remarkable to see my growth alongside my friend’s growth.”
“For a Vice Chair, what I have been looking for is someone that is really close to me that can work professionally with me and personally,” Madappatt continued. “Sidney definitely fits that quota for me.”
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