William Jewell College’s Student Senate is composed of students representing each grade level and a variety of organizations. The senators tackle campus issues impacting both students and staff and work to create a better environment for the community. Currently the Senate is composed of three committees: policy, networking and campus events. It is the cabinet’s job to oversee said committees and to bring forward information to the senators weekly.

The “Will to Better the Hill” Cabinet consists of:

–       President: Sarah Lewis, junior business, political science and Applied Critical Thought and Inquiry (ACT-In) major. Currently, Lewis is involved in various groups including softball, Zeta Tau Alpha, College Union Activities (CUA) and more, as well as being a First Year Mentor. Lewis also serves on the current Senate cabinet as Vice President.

–       Vice-President: Carman Stephenson, sophomore elementary education major. Currently, Stephenson is involved in a variety of groups on campus including Zeta Tau Alpha, CUA, and the Pryor Leadership Program. Stephenson also serves as a first-year resident assistant in Eaton.

–       Treasurer: Tavarus Pennington, first-year communications major. Currently, Pennington is an active member of Jewell’s debate team, a member of Lambda Chi Alpha, a writer for The Hilltop Monitor and a member of the Climate Assessment and Response Team (CART).

–       Secretary: John Haug, first-year chemistry major. Currently, Haug is a member of Phi Gamma Delta.

The cabinet describes  their platform as such:

1. Renovation of student spaces, such as the cage.

Our cabinet feels passionate about having the conversations necessary to change the spaces that are important to our students. After meeting with Kiki we have been able to gather more information about how to make this happen.

2. Continuation of past Senate ideas, such as the flyer policy.

With the help of Sarah, our cabinet believes that it is important that we have a smooth transition between this year’s cabinet and next year’s cabinet. We want to ensure that we are implementing the policies that this Senate has worked so hard to complete.

3. Cultivating more Diversity & Inclusion, focusing on eliminating “groupthink.”

We realize that diversity and inclusion needs to be a priority in order to move our campus forward. Our cabinet is ready to re-evaluate our current practices and have the hard conversations necessary to cultivate a more inclusive campus with more informed individuals. We hope to do this through new diversity and inclusion summits that will take the place of current Town Halls.

4. Becoming a more environmentally friendly campus.

Our cabinet would like to see more reusable items on our campus especially in regards to our coffee shops. We would like to incorporate reusable straws and look into the possibility of a Jewell “tumbler” that can be reused.

The “Serve, Challenge, Belong” cabinet consists of:

–       President: Hannah Keeney, junior psychological science major. Currently, Keeney is involved in Cardinal Hosts, Blazers, Delta Zeta, and Track and Field. Keeney also serves on the current Senate cabinet as Treasurer.

–       Vice-President: Mario Magana Jr., first-year business administration major. Currently, Magana is involved with CART, Mi Gente Organization, the Diversity and Inclusion Workgroup, Pryor Leadership and football.

–       Treasurer: Hunter O’Connor, first-year political science and history major. Currently, O’Connor is involved in Kappa Alpha Order, Pryor Leadership and football.

–       Secretary: Micah Williams, junior biology and ACT-In major. Currently, Williams is the President of the Black Student Association, involved in the Student Diversity and Inclusion Workgroup, Mi Gente Organization and was a First Year Mentor.

The cabinet describes their platform as such:

“This cabinet is running on the slogan of “Serve, Challenge, Belong” Their platform includes a main focus of inclusion on campus. To improve diversity and inclusion, they intend to be extremely intentional with facilitating dialogue throughout campus and actively help change the climate of Jewell so it can be more inclusive, open to change and transparent with its students. In addition, their cabinet wants to continue to push for better representation on Senate and welcome all perspectives.

Hannah, Mario, Micah and Hunter also want to challenge the institution by pushing for improvements to on-campus housing, specifically in upperclassmen residence halls and emphasizing the importance of student input within institutional committees and alterations at Jewell.

This cabinet’s main goals align with their slogan. The first, serve; modeling servant leadership and empowering students to take ownership of their time at Jewell and actively engaging in dialogue and pursuing meaningful purpose. Challenge; to challenge not only the student body but the institution to be more engaged and open to new ideas to better the community as a whole. Lastly, belong; creating an inclusive climate for all students to be represented and feel empowered in their community. Hannah, Mario, Hunter and Micah are enthused to have the opportunity to run for Student Senate and look forward to the debate on Thursday where they will have a chance to speak more on their visions for the Jewell community.”

You can also recap on the Student Senate debates that occurred April 12, where both sides argued their platforms.

Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s campaign has grossed more national attention than any other republican candidate. Despite an encompassing tone of anti-establishment ideology, Trump has received multiple endorsements from current and former politicians, two of which are current governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie and former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin. Both have made public endorsements in recent months. Both Christie and Palin advocate for Trump because of his outsider status.

Another politician, former mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, has supported the Trump campaign. In fact, Giuliani has been an informal consultant to Trump in regards to his presidential bid. Giuliani alluded that there is a large group of high-profile New York and Washington-based figures with deep ties to the Republican party who are in regular touch with Trump.

Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz also has an array of politicians from the GOP who support his campaign. Rick Perry, the governor of Texas and previous candidate for the 2016 primary has endorsed the Cruz campaign. Perry has been joining Ted Cruz all across the nation in an effort to support the GOP candidate.

In most recent news, former primary candidate Carly Fiorina has articulated her support for Cruz. Fiorina joined Cruz at a rally in Miami to show her support for his campaign. Fiorina stated the party needed to get behind Cruz in order to ensure Trump does not get the nomination. Cruz said he was humbled to receive her endorsement.

“Here’s the thing: We’re not going to beat Donald Trump by having our party tsk tsk over our voters. We’re going to have to beat Donald Trump at the ballot box,” said Fiorina.

In the realm of pop culture, the most recognizable star to endorse Cruz is Phil Robertson of the reality series “Duck Dynasty.” Robertson has been seen at multiple rallies and has also filmed campaign ads to show his support for Cruz.

Bernie Sanders
The most controversial endorsement for Bernie Sanders comes from Tulsi Gabbard, who recently resigned as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in order to show her support. The representative from Hawaii said that she could no longer stay neutral during the primary and instead wanted to show her utmost support for Sanders.

Prior to his campaign, Sanders was far from the pop culture realm. However, many different celebrities have endorsed the primary candidate. One of the most influential is tv-star and comedian, Sarah Silverman. She has attended multiple rallies to introduce the candidate. Silverman has also taken her support to social media, posting multiple statuses and tweets to reiterate her support for Sanders’ presidential bid.

“You know, I feel weird using words like values and morals, because those are words that have been co-opted by people who wear them as shrouds to justify terrible things, like bigotry and greed,” she said. “I’d like to take those words back tonight and use them to describe Bernie Sanders,” said Silverman.

However, one of the longest and most adamant supporters of Bernie Sanders is Killer Mike, a rapper in the group Run the Jewels. Killer Mike has supported the Sanders campaign very early on, his first declaration of his support dating all the way back to June 2015.

Since then, the rapper has continuously showed his support for Sanders. Like Silverman, he has attended many rallies to show his support. However, Killer Mike has gone the extra mile and sat down with the candidate and produced a six-part interview.

Hillary Clinton
The other democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, has just as many high-profile endorsements as Sanders. Freshman senator Cory Booker, as of February, supports the Clinton campaign. This has come as a shock to many people, considering he disparaged her campaign in 2008. This time around, though, he has advocated for Hillary by pointing out that none of his colleagues in the senate have advocated for Clinton and not Sanders.

“I have a lot of love for Bernie. I value him as a colleague. I have nothing negative to say about him. But I do know that none of his colleagues in the Senate have endorsed him,” said Booker.

Clinton has many endorsements outside of Washington as well. Ellen Degeneres has advocated for Hillary Clinton, stating that she’d be a champion of LGBTQ rights, and has attended several of her fundraisers. The list of celebrities attending Clinton’s fundraisers go on, including stars such as Kanye West, Lady Gaga and Amy Poehler. Lena Dunhman and Amy Schumer have been two of the most vocal advocates for Clinton. Amy Schumer and her uncle senator Chuck Schumer have both endorsed her. Amy Schumer claimed as soon as she was introduced to Hillary, she immediately asked if there was anything she could do to support her campaign.

Dunham has been just as vocal in her support for Clinton. In addition to showing her support through social media and fundraisers, Dunham, similarly to Killer Mike with Sanders, sat down with Clinton for an interview.

Additionally, Dunham has made claims that media coverage of the Clinton campaign has been very sexist.

“The way that Hillary Clinton’s been talked about in the media is so gendered and rabidly sexist in every single portrayal, whether it’s the attacks on her personal life or the adjectives that are used to describe her clothing, we have to do a full reexamination,” said Dunham.

Stein, who is seeking the Green Party nomination, entered the world of politics in 2002 as a candidate for the governor of Massachusetts. After losing this election, she ran again in 2010 and lost, receiving 1.4 percent of votes. In the years in between her 2002 and 2010 gubernatorial candidacies, Stein ran for three other office positions: the House of Representatives in 2004, the Town Meeting Representative in 2005 and the Secretary of Commonwealth in 2006. Her only success was as the Town Meeting Representative, a title she was reelected to in 2008. In 2012, Stein became the most successful female presidential candidate when she won the Green Party nomination and received .36 percent of votes in the election. She announced her intent to run in the 2016 election Feb. 6, 2015.

Stein graduated from Harvard in 1973 with a degree in sociology, anthropology and psychology. After she received her undergraduate degree, she graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1979. Since then, Stein has worked as a physician, environmental-health advocate and teacher of internal medicine.

Stein became interested in the health education in 1998 when she learned about the toxic threats that children were exposed to and saw that politicians were not doing anything to change this. She has co-authored two books and served on many boards and committees that are working towards greater health and sustainability. One of the boards was for Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization working to protect the public from the spread of nuclear weapons, climate change and environmental toxins. She also developed her own education plan called “Healthy People, Healthy Planet,” a program that has been used at conferences across the nation to show the connection between human health, climate security and green economic revitalization.

If elected, Stein plans to focus on basic rights and freedoms. For example, she wishes to create living-wage jobs, establish tuition-free education through the college level and end destructive energy extraction.

Johnson is seeking the Libertarian Party nomination, the same position he ran for in 2012. He became active in politics in 1994 when he ran for governor of New Mexico. He was elected to this position as a member of the Republican Party in 1995 and served until 2003. During his 2012 campaign, Johnson received the most votes for a Libertarian candidate in history, placing third in the general election.

Prior to his involvement in politics, Johnson was a businessman and handyman. He founded Big J Enterprises, one of New Mexico’s largest construction companies. He started this company in 1976 as the only employee, and by the time he sold it in 1999, it was a multimillion dollar establishment with over 1,000 employees. Most recently, Johnson served as Chief Executive Officer of Cannabis Sativa, Inc. from July 2014 to the end of 2015, leaving to devote time to his presidential campaign.

Johnson wants to implement a strong government-balanced budget, a problem he has experience with from his time as governor. When he left his position in New Mexico, the state had around a one billion dollar budget surplus, and the size of the government had decreased. The budget surplus can largely be accredited to Johnson’s use of his veto power, which he used more than all 49 previous governors combined. Johnson implemented the cost-benefit approach, which allowed him to determine whether or not a project would be beneficial by comparing its cost to its expected benefits. During his time in office, taxes did not increase for six years, new road programs were established and two new private prisons were built.

Johnson plans to limit the government’s involvement in the personal lives of citizens. He believes that the government should allow individuals the freedom to make personal choices as long as no harm is done to other people. In his attempt to remove the government from personal lives, Johnson will implement a criminal justice reform that redefines which crimes should be punishable by incarceration.

Perhaps the most obscure third party candidate is Vermin Supreme, a performance artist and activist. Easily catching public attention, Supreme is known to wear a boot as a hat and carry around a large toothbrush. He recently came in fourth in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary.

This is not Supreme’s first time in the election. He has run for president seven times. His 2012 campaign platform consisted of zombie apocalypse awareness and time travel research. If elected, Supreme plans to implement a law requiring people to brush their teeth and has promised to provide every American with a pony.

Supreme describes his campaign as “joke humor,” making fun of the promises other candidates and the government make to the people. Supreme has indicated that he leads towards anarchism.