RHA elects new president of 41st session

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After an eight and a half hour meeting, assembly members of the MSU Residence Halls Association, or RHA, elected current Vice President Chelsea Satkowiak as president of RHA’s 41st session.

Satkowiak will begin her term April 14.

The meeting — which started around 7 p.m. Wednesday and ended at 4 a.m. Thursday — saw Satkowiak elected over incumbent Emma Perot, a hospitality business senior, and McDonel Hall representative Ryan Starski, a statistics senior.

“I am excited for the future,” said Satkowiak, a public administration and public policy junior.

“I look forward to a new experience and doing something different.”

Satkowiak said she wants to raise awareness of the organization on campus and make the organization more transparent. She said she wanted to stress to assembly members that she was there to support them.

“As the president of RHA, I am the voice of the organization,” Satkowiak said.

“I want to be able to support our constituents and their programs. I intend to be at meetings, so they can see the face of the voice of the organization.”

Perot said she was upset when she first heard the election results because there still were opportunities she wanted to pursue.

“I truly wanted to continue on as president,” Perot said. “I thought I still had things to offer.”

However, she said she was hopeful for the future of the organization.

“I’m excited for a new leader to have a chance to grow,” she said. “I am excited to see what (Satkowiak) can accomplish over the course of the 41st session.”

Starski could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Each candidate gave a 10-minute speech followed by a period of unlimited questioning, said David Averill, RHA’s chief of staff, in an e-mail. During that time, assembly members could ask relevant questions to each candidate.

RHA representative Caytlynn Roy said she was looking for a president who was “approachable, professional (and) knowledgeable” of students’ on-campus living concerns.

“My constituents and I were looking for a president that will voice our concerns to the administration,” Roy said in an e-mail. She represents Spectrum, MSU East Zone’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning and queer caucus.

“(The president should) bring a face to the students he or she is representing.”

Former RHA president Kevin Newman said he attended RHA’s election for the eighth straight year to support the presidential candidates. He said past RHA officials often return to offer advice and help members handle new situations and transitions.

“It’s that common bond and experience,” Newman said. “Knowing exactly what they went through — and having had that exact same feeling — you feel for them. You empathize with them.”

Newman said running for the RHA presidency should be a point of pride for all the candidates and added that the new president had an “immense” responsibility to shoulder.

“It is such an opportunity to change the lives of 14,000 students,” Newman said. “It is something that can be amazingly positive.”

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