The Residence Halls Association is one step closer to filling next year’s executive board.
The association elected John Sturk, the North American Indian Student Organization’s representative, to the internal vice president position for 2002-03.
At Wednesday night’s election, Sturk calmly strolled about a room in Wilson Hall, outlining his goals to improve diversity and understanding of parliamentary procedure within the association. He was talking to nearly 60 peers, all looking to challenge him with questions.
This is exactly what Sturk said he worked so hard to achieve.
Sturk said the chance to interact with people led him to pursue a position in the general assembly. The internal vice president’s duties include acting as an adviser and overseeing financial processes, legislation and meeting procedures. Three people ran for the internal vice president position.
“When I came to MSU, I didn’t know anybody,” he said. “The moment I signed on with RHA, I instantly had 60 friends. I want to continue to keep RHA a friendly environment.”
He said RHA also introduced him to people with diverse backgrounds.
“I was very happy to come to RHA and be exposed to so many diverse cultures and backgrounds,” he said. “That is something we are going to work to preserve in the next year, not only on my part, but the entire executive board.”
In the next few years, he said he would like the association to form an official alliance with other Big Ten schools.
“We would like to make ourselves a little more well-known among campus,” he said. “We’re still struggling with getting the word out about RHA and what we are here to do - provide services to residents.”
Sturk will officially take office April 10 with President-elect Tim Liss and the external vice president, which will be elected Wednesday. Candidates for the external vice president are Asian Pacific American Student Organization Rep. Justin Komori, Holden Hall Rep. Emily Edick and Julie Hughes, RHA director of treasury and allocations.
Komori said he was satisfied by the issues Sturk focused on.
“He had a really good idea about things he had plans for next year regardless of whether he had been elected or not,” Komori said.
He said Sturk will compliment the new president’s objective to make the association a household name.
Bailey Hall Rep. Tyler Gill said he was impressed with Sturk’s presentation before the general assembly.
“He had a very organized speech and talked about the past, present and future,” Gill said. “He also had an above-average knowledge of student groups and issues.”
Staff writer Chris Boyer contributed to this report.
