Juniors Joe Laskowiecki and Collin Todora, running respectively for Holy Cross Student Government Association (SGA) president and vice president, desire to strengthen the Holy Cross’s community as well as its connection to the tri-campus community.
Laskowiecki said that one of the things that make the ticket unique is their diverse backgrounds. They feel because of that, they can contribute something to every department from an academic and social standpoint.
Laskowiecki, born and raised in Chicago, is a business major with minors in communications and marketing. He served as a resident assistant for Anselm Hall this year and is also the head of intramural sports at Holy Cross.
Todora is from Port Arthur, Texas and is a biology major with minors in math and computer science. He's on the golf team at Holy Cross and a tutor for math and computer science.
Their ticket “wants to make sure everyone’s voice is heard” within the Holy Cross community, Laskowiecki said.
“My biggest goal is to try to incorporate Holy Cross more into the tri-campus community. But I also want to give that inner feeling to Holy Cross students to be able to be proud to represent the college and to be proud to say that they went to Holy Cross College” Laskowiecki said.
Laskowiecki and Todora both said that they value success for individual students not only in the present moment but also in the future beyond their time at Holy Cross.
“I want to have the college courses prepare them as best as they can for their future success,” Laskowiecki said. “So however we can go about that, whether it's from a course or whether it's listening to the people and what they want to do, I think that's where most of our candidacy is going to come from our biggest platform.”
Todora said they also hope to alleviate some of the stress from faculty and alumni. “I know that there’s stress with students coming up and asking questions and stuff like that, that [faculty] can’t fill, so we would kind of be that buffer, in-between to help alleviate some of the stress that they would have,” Todora said.
Laskowiecki and Todora are also passionate about bridging connections between faculty and students. “We want students’ concerns to be heard,” Laskowiecki said.
Todora said their first priority would be to develop a sense of communication with Holy Cross students. Specifically, they want the students to know that they are available to help.
“I know, since I tutor for math, a lot of the students don't really like to go to the professor because they feel kind of intimidated. So it's kind of nice to have a student that they can talk to and connect to,” Todora said. “Developing that initial connection between the students and us would be probably a pretty good primary goal in our case.”
Laskowiecki said he wants to be available as someone to talk to when students have concerns with professors. “I know some people don't want to have attention on them,” Laskowiecki said. “But if we could be that stepping stone to the next level, to bring their concerns and let them be heard, I think that’s our biggest goal.”
They also, however, have aspirations that extend beyond academics and the classroom. “I personally would also like to further develop the town hall meetings that we just started doing this year. We started on this last semester and I think it can be really beneficial, especially if we start getting a better show out or for more people to show up,” Laskowiecki said.
Laskowiecki mentioned that they, of course, want to listen to student suggestions as well.
“I've already heard some guys who live in South [Hall] say, ‘Hey, can we get a vending machine in here somehow?’ It might be pricey, but people would like that. Even if we got one over in North [Hall] and South, I'm sure that they'll bring more revenue to the school and that people would just also enjoy those,” Laskowiecki said.
Laskowiecki said that, ultimately, they want to leave their mark and make a change. “I want to be able to say like, ‘Hey, we were president,’” he said, “‘and this is what we did at the end of the year.’”
