Former WSA president meets with WSA

By Megan Higdon
Western Herald

The 60th District State Representative slot for Michigan is ready to be re-filled, and as of now two Democratic candidates, both former Western Student Association presidents, are in the running to represent the 91,234 people in the district.

Chris Praedel, who was WSA president in the 2007-2008 school year, met with the Senate yesterday to explain his campaign, speak about his platform and share his passion for education.

Currently Praedel is teaching on the south side of Chicago for the Chicago Public Schools as part of the Teach for America program. He will earn his master’s degree in teaching in May 2010.

“Not only do I bleed Brown and Gold, but I bleed Kalamazoo,” Praedel said.

Praedel said that he can relate to students on the discouragements of higher education’s costly investments and explained that one of his main goals to decrease the cost of attending college.

Praedel said that at the higher education level cuts could be as high as 3 percent across the state. He said that one way to prevent tuition increases would be by implementing a 10 cent deposit on bottled juice and water bottles and added that the revenue could bring $240 million a year.

Praedel went on to declare the importance of constituents contacting Michigan legislatures.

“It really will make a difference,” he said.

Praedel also expressed his enthusiasm and ongoing effort to get Google Fiber in Kalamazoo.

He claimed that if Kalamazoo received Google Fiber it could be one of the most productive cities in the world.

Although the economy is far from its best in Michigan, Praedel said heis ready to fight the challenges.

“You can’t give up on Michigan,” he said.

“We have so much to be proud of — don’t lose faith in our state.”

Kelly Bache, a senator for the Hayworth College of Business said that she thinks that it is very important for students to contact senators and representatives, especially on the issue of higher education costs.

“I think we should make flyers with a script on what to say to legislatures along with their phone numbers,” she stated.

The senate also elected Robert Youngs as Speaker Protemp. Youngs will be joining Speaker Christina Clarke in officiating senate business.

Next week, President Aaron Booth will be appointing his administration’s treasurer, chief of operations, allocations committee chair, university pride chair and student affairs committee chair.

Kristopher Banks and Erin Kaplan ran on the Booth slate and will be appointed as university pride and student affairs chairs respectively.

The appointments will have to be confirmed by the senate.

The other candidate positions will be announced the following week.

Committee chair and cabinet member position applications are due April 11 and are available at www.rockthewmuvote.com. Applicants do not have to be a part of WSA to apply.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=16538

Posted by kleonard on Apr 8 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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