Hamline Undergraduate Student Congress’ (HUSC) fall election is underway starting September 27 and running through September 29. This election will complete the HUSC executive board. 

Since the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, HUSC has undergone some changes related both to procedural and public matters.

One of these procedural and cosmetic changes includes how the titles for HUSC president and vice president have been changed to  “internal and “external president respectively. This was voted on during the 2020-21 year, fully being put into effect this fall for External President Raina Meyer and Internal President Ruben Dominguez. 

Other changes relate to the way HUSC plans to operate, recognizing the evolving COVID-19 situation and the congress’ involvement with students. 

HUSC has been utilizing hybrid models for general assembly (GA) and internal meetings. While GA meetings also take place in-person, they offer a virtual option for the Hamline community. Dominguez chairs these meetings and ensures any online attendees have the opportunity to be heard. 

“We should try to push the idea that everyone belongs to campus, whether that’s virtual or in person,” said Dominguez. “I feel like at the end of the day, we all love each other and really care about everyone’s health and betterment, trying to incorporate those models are important, and we don’t know how long [COVID-19 is] going to last, you know, so I think the sooner we start practicing that, the better.” 

During GA meetings, HUSC encourages student feedback regarding their COVID-19 experience and how it is impacting their student experience. Co-presidents incorporate these stories into their conversations with administration and the Board of Trustees in order to emphasize these real experiences students have been having. 

They also hope to continue to be a source of support and connection for students and organizations on campus. 

“In terms of interacting with the student body, I’d say that we are a lot more open and accessible than we have been in previous years,” Meyer said. “When hiring our [executive] board, and training them for the upcoming year we really wanted to emphasize accessibility and making sure that student organizations especially feel like they can come to us for whatever help they need.” 

HUSC’s social media has also evolved to become what Meyer describes as a “more relatable” platform. Senior Mya Severson, the Public Relations Chair, is in charge of these additions. 

Co-presidents are excited for the election to both interact with students through the voting as well as to meet their other elected representatives. 

“[People] join HUSC to make campus better, to make campus more inclusive and the fact that we see people applying and caring about that from such different backgrounds, I seriously can’t wait, ” Dominguez said. “At the end of the day, for a lot of them who are applying… this is the future of what Hamline is.” 

Co-presidents encourage students to reach out with any questions, concerns or ideas they may have. HUSC can be contacted at husc@hamline.edu, huscexternal@hamline.edu (Meyer), huscinternal@hamline.edu (Dominguez) or during office hours, with information accessed at husc.hamline.edu/.