“I’m really excited,” Cullen said. “I’ve been interested in doing this ever since I got involved with Senate. I want to work to help students out and get their voices heard. It was great to see voters agreed with me.”
Cullen won out over opponents Alex Etzkowitz PO ’10 and Alvin Sangsuwangul PO ’10.
Cullen has experience working in Pomona student government and on-campus organizations. He has participated in student committees, the Judicial Board, and the Women’s Union, as well as being a sponsor and sophomore class president, among other things. He worked within ASPC to bring Zipcar to campus and increase meal plan options. He was also part of the Senate when they established a new position to address diversity and community relations on campus. This year he was the ASPC Senate secretary.
In his candidate statement, Cullen focused on how he has sought to “advocate student needs” and to “protect student interests.” He said he wants to continue to emphasize student input as ASPC president and said that he got a lot of support during the election from fellow students who liked his plans about implementing students’ ideas. He also said he expects that ASPC will need to focus on budget cuts during the next term and how they will affect students.
“The good news is that ASPC won’t have cuts in its budget,” said Cullen. “I hope to make it so no organization feels a loss of funding from us. I want to make it easier for students to understand how to start an organization. I plan to work with Kelly Schwartz, the Vice President for Finance, to make Senate more accessible and transparent to people and let people know how they can leverage Senate resources to achieve what they want to achieve on and off campus.”
Schwartz, who has been both Commissioner of Communications and Junior Class President, indicated similar goals as Cullen in her job as Vice President for Finance.
“I foresee next year being a critical year for budget changes schoolwide,” said Schwartz. “I hope to make ASPC funds available to students schoolwide and let students know that the ASPC budget won’t be cut. I want to be able to support students next year when they are going to be facing budget cuts in other areas and I hope to advocate on behalf of students to keep programs like [Orientation Adventure] and [summer research grant program] SURP as intact as possible.”
Cullen, Schwartz, and Kaneshiro will be joined on ASPC Senate with a number of other students who were elected to office this week. Scott Levy PO ’10 was elected as Commissioner of Academic Affairs and Joanna Ladd PO ’10 was elected Commissioner of Environmental Affairs. Kim Hartung PO ‘10 will work as Commissioner of Campus Community Relations and Rylan Stewart PO ‘10, the senior staff manager at The Student Life, will be Commissioner of Clubs and Sports. Calvin Kagan PO ’10 was elected Senior Class President.
Candidates must receive at least 50 percent of the vote in the first election cycle in order to win their election. In campaigns between three candidates where no candidate receives at least half of the vote, a run-off election is held between the top two candidates.
Two run-off elections were held Thursday for Commissioner of Communications and Junior Class President. Than Volk PO ’10 was elected communications commissioner and Wintaye Gebru PO ’09 will be president of the junior class.