Due to her enthusiasm and verve, the Wheel chooses to endorse College junior Stephanie Llanes for the position of College Council (CC) vice president.

Llanes’ experience affords her the rare opportunity to have both an outside and an inside vantage on CC. A transfer student from Gainesville State College, Llanes spent two years there serving on the Student Government Association (SGA), the second year as vice president. She gained valuable experience setting and following her initiatives until their implementation — experience which we hope will help her anticipate what is asked from the CC vice president.

Within CC, Llanes was the vice president for communications, managing the submitted bills, the agenda and multiple visual and promotional aspects of CC. She is also part of the Student Concerns Committee. Because of her experience in these organizations, we believe Llanes is well acquainted with the questions and concerns of both the student body and club representatives.

A primary goal of Llanes’ is to strengthen relations and communication between CC and the University’s clubs.

Llanes noted that over the past year, people confused by the process of applying for bills had no general outlet in which to ask questions. She proposes to increase the visibility of CC, as well as the clarity of the rules. In addition, Llanes suggests a greater utilization of weekly office hours.

Another facet of Llanes’ platform is to reform CC’s monetary policy to accommodate discussion about providing funds for items necessary for events. While this is a goal shared by several candidates for CC positions, Llanes augments her position by proposing a further addition to the financial side of CC: a Council of Treasurers specifically for CC, as opposed to only having the preexisting SGA Council.

Here, CC treasurers can be trained under the CC processes. We believe both additions will ensure that CC handles and appropriates the money with which they are entrusted in as useful a manner as possible.

Furthermore, Llanes aims to improve the liaison system set in place earlier this year. While the institution of the liaison system is inherently good, this year the program has not been as successful as it could have been. Llanes recommends a more active role for Admin Committee members working in the liaison system.

By further involving the legislators, they will feel more responsible for the clubs they represent and Llanes feels that the system’s effectiveness will improve drastically. As working with clubs is a large majority of CC’s business, the Wheel supports this push for clubs to have a more prevalent inclusion in CC through this liaison system, and we hope that Llanes is successful in increasing legislators’ motivation.

In her platform, Llanes also addresses several student concerns. She offers such solutions as free printing, reinstating free Ethernet, boosting the Wi-Fi signal across campus and increasing the number of shuttles allotted to the Night Owl and Experience Shuttle services. The Wheel endorsement committee understands these are important and popular concerns held by the student body.

However, we are not sure how feasible these goals are to accomplish in one year with CC’s budget.

We feel that Llanes’ enthusiasm expressed toward her involvement as CC vice president will drive her to achieve many of her proposed goals. We hope that, while pursuing the student body’s interests, Llanes remains focused on realistic goals that will positively affect the University.