Ivy Petsinger

Ivy+Petsinger+%28VP+of+Student+Life%29

Ivy Petsinger (VP of Student Life)

Name: Ivy Petsinger

Year: 2018

Major: Chemical Engineering

Running for: VP of Student Life

What are your plans for this position?
I would support and mentor representatives on the Student Life Committee so that they can find initiatives they are passionate about, have a successful and engaged experience in the USG, and ultimately, make a positive impact on the undergraduate student experience here at CWRU. As VP of Student Life, I would make meetings as meaningful and productive as possible. I envision meetings including professional development to make sure representatives are able to successfully work with administrators and organizations to complete initiatives, and discussing topics about representatives’ initiatives needing student feedback.

What is one initiative that you want to complete in your first semester?
I would like to introduce an oath of inclusion, collaborating with UDC, OMA, and other organizations, to make this campus a welcoming environment for everyone of different backgrounds. While we often hear our school taking pride in its diversity and inclusivity, I believe there is so much room for growth and that working together with other organizations, we could do a lot in improving it.

How can school spirit be improved on campus?
As Residence Life is working on restructuring the first year residential colleges, I believe they should incorporate school spirit into the traditions programs during orientation week that currently revolve around the themes of Magnolia, Cedar, Mistletoe, and Juniper. Additionally, I would love to implement a trophy case in the Tinkham Veale University Center, promoting students’ and student organizations’ accomplishments.

Should CWRU go tobacco-free?
My personal initial instinct is to support CWRU going tobacco free as we are a research university surrounded by many hospitals and there is a lot of research available that supports tobacco being harmful to our health. However, I believe my role as Vice President of Student Life is to represent the voices of all undergraduate students. Beyond that, this could affect graduate students, administrators, faculty, and staff. I believe everyone’s opinion should be heard and taken into consideration. I would reach out to people from different backgrounds whose perspectives differ than mine, and see how CWRU going tobacco free would affect them, before making any decisions on if CWRU should do tobacco free. The tobacco free open forum this Friday will hopefully shed some light on these differing opinions.

How can campus transportation be improved?
According to compiled data from BusBuzz, the Greenie feedback system, the two largest issues with the Greenies revolve around the prediction system and the drivers. The prediction system is not very accurate, causing students to not be able to rely on Greenies. This is detrimental to students at CWRU who need to get to class, meetings, etc. in a timely manner. To improve this, nextBus data, in particular from the GPS and predictions, need to be assessed. While it is understandable that a prediction system will never been exactly accurate, if the prediction system is updated more often and if the GPS/tracker portrays where the bus is truly located, it would tremendously improve the reliability of the Greenies. Additionally, many complaints revolve around drivers sitting a stops for long periods of time and drivers stopping to smoke. This could be improved by implanting a driver education program and making sure that drivers are adhering to their expectations.