Posts Tagged ‘Jennifer Cheray’
Foundation on the hunt for new president
Written by Bulletin Staff
Friday, 20 January 2012 16:35
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Following on the heels of Emporia State’s presidential search, the ESU Foundation, which exists primarily to raise funds for the institution, is looking for a new president.

Tim Clothier, 1978 alum, continues to serve as interim president since he took over last May when Judith Heasley stepped down. Clothier said he is interested in filling the position permanently.

“We have been trying to touch a lot of folks in the Emporia community,” Clothier said. “I may have moved away (from Emporia) 35 years ago, but it’s just like yesterday. I still see friends from when I went to school here. That’s the beauty of it.”

Clothier said he wants to focus on opportunities to expose the university and create a greater presence in the local community for ESU.

Jennifer Cheray, search committee member, Associated Student Government vice president and senior marketing major said that without the funding the foundation provides, ESU would be unable to recruit students with scholarships and the university would be unable to continue renovations on campus.

The foundation president works with the Board of Trustees and alumni on fundraising efforts in addition to organizing campaigns so that ESU can grow as a university, Cheray said.

In the four years that she served as Foundation president from 2007 until 2011, Heasley said the foundation raised approximately $26.5 million from its donors.

“People are investments in the future,” Heasley said. “By investing in the future, we are investing in students.”

But Heasley said the role of foundation president also comes with hardships. The most difficult time for Heasley came in 2008 and early 2009 when the economy plummeted.

“(We had to) make sure that everyone kept a job and scholarships were given so that we allocated money over to university to award scholarships,” Heasley said.

So far, the search process has involved collecting and reviewing applications for possible candidates, Cheray said. Students can express concerns to her or other committee members so they will be able to look for desirable qualities in an applicant.

“A lot of students don’t know what the foundation is on campus until after graduation when they are asked to give back to their school,” Cheray said. “We need someone who is willing to familiarize themselves with students, who is personable, who can make that relationship happen before graduation.”

In honor of ESU’s 150th birthday in 2013, the foundation is currently focused on putting together a comprehensive campaign to raise money, Clothier said.

Susan Welte

 
Vogts, Cheray win ASG election with 418 votes
Written by Bulletin Staff
Thursday, 14 April 2011 13:35
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Junior marketing major Jennifer Cheray and junior integrated studies and pre-occupational therapy major Ashley Vogts hug after seeing that they had won the 2011 ASG presidential campaign Wednesday night in the Memorial Union. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

Junior marketing major Jennifer Cheray and junior integrated studies and pre-occupational therapy major Ashley Vogts hug after seeing that they had won the 2011 ASG presidential campaign Wednesday night in the Memorial Union. Kellen Jenkins/ The Bulletin

The new president and vice president of Associated Student Government are Ashley Vogts, junior integrated studies and pre-occupational therapy major, and Jennifer Cheray, junior marketing major, respectively. At approximately 5 p.m. last night, the election results were posted outside of the Center for Student.

“It’s feels good – we’re excited,” Vogts said. “We’ve both been involved in ASG for five years between the two of us and we were ready to take that next step and become a bigger leader within ASG. We have a passion for ESU and ASG.”

According to the election results, 755 students voted in the online election. Vogts and Cheray received 418 votes. The voting started Monday and ended at 4 p.m. yesterday. The total number of students voting increased by 66 from last year’s election.

“We really want to stick with our platform that we were running with – establish, solidfy and unite and kind of build upon those three words and the plans we’ve set forth,” Vogts said.

Vogts said they want to establish face-to-face relations between organizations and their representatives in ASG, solidify what ASG already has in terms of internal structure and unite students with the faculty. They also want Senators to be known on campus.

“There’s the Faculty Senate and the Student Senate and we really want to bridge that gap and become that liaison between students and faculty,” Vogts said.

Cheray said the toughest part of the campaign was sending their message to as many students as possible.

“We were trying to reach a diverse group of students, not hitting the same students, so that was definitely the hardest things for us to reach outside of the box and hit multiple groups of students,” Vogts said.

Vogts said the first thing the two hope to accomplish next year is the “solidify” component of their campaign. At the beginning of each fall semester, ASG has a retreat, and Vogts said the main focus for the next one will be the different roles for Senators.

Cheray said the retreat has always been about what specific committees Senators are involved with, so members only focus on one area of ASG rather than every aspect.

“We want to focus on broadening their knowledge of ASG as well as how to better communicate that information with their organizations,” Cheray said.

Vogts said another goal is to improve communication between faculty and administrators and students on campus.

“We talked to some faculty members and administration members and one thing that really stuck out was that they want student input, student relations with faculty members,” Vogts said. “That is a huge need here on campus. Sometimes students’ voices get lost.”

Vogts and Cheray said some of their biggest supporters were family members, classmates and their sorority sisters. Vogts is a member of Chi Omega and Cheray is in Alpha Sigma Alpha.

“Be looking for ASG (next year) – we’re open for any students to come to us for opinions, ideas, concerns, positive things too,” Vogts said.

Kenzie Templeton

 
ASG hosts campus debate for future president
Written by Bulletin Staff
Thursday, 07 April 2011 12:56
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About 25 students attended Associate Student Government’s president and vice president debate Monday afternoon outside of the Center of Student Involvement.

Two candidate teams participated in the debate. Ashley Vogts, junior integrated studies and pre-occupational therapy major and Jennifer Cheray, junior marketing major, are running for president and vice president, respectively. Laura Bosiljevac, sophomore political science major, and Michael Stauffer，sophomore speech and theater major, are also running for president and vice president, respectively.

“I think both teams put forth a lot of effort, and they communicate their ideas very well,” said Ross Rundell, junior theatre major.

Luke Chiddix, junior political science major, said the debate had an overall good turnout, but he wished more students had been involved.

The debate started with opening statements and then candidates answered nine questions from the audience. The first question asked what the major issues are for the student body.

Vogts thought students’ voices were lost sometimes and they want to “put students back in ESU, and make their voices be heard.”

“Most organizations don’t really know what ASG can offer them,” Cheray said.

Stauffer also said he was surprised to find that people do not know about ASG and student organizations do not know who their senators were.

“Something we also believe is a huge issue on campus can just be stated with one word – apathy,” Bosiljevac said.

Candidates also answered a few questions concerning improvement on ASG and the relationship between Recognized Student Organizations and their senators.

“ASG’s foundation right now is great,” Vogts said. “We want to take those positions that they set up last year in the fall, Multicultural Affairs liaison and International liaison, (and) utilize those and make them the best they can possibly be.”

Bosiljevac said they would focus on specific training for student senators and raising the standard of the student Senate.

“We will focus on each individual senator’s strength and tailor that to fit the RSOs’ needs,” Bosiljevac said. “We want to help them use their strength to benefit their RSOs to their fullest potential as well as grow themselves.”

To better utilize the potential of senators, Stauffer said when organizing a campus event, senators could talk to related RSOs that have knowledge on the subject and get the information back to ASG to make the event more successful.

To improve the relationship between senators and RSOs, both Bosiljevac and Vogts agreed that ASG should become more approachable and utilize more cross-programming to encourage joint efforts from different organizations.

“(Cross-programming) not only will help the campus as a whole because we have greater interaction within the members on campus, but also we will have better recruitment, better retention, (and) better involvement from students,” Vogts said.

Another question was asked about the benefits of bridging the communication between faculty and students. Bosiljevac said it is not always true that faculty know everything on campus.

“We can bridge the gap and facilitate the communication…we want to get to the point where it is not just us bringing the problem to administrators and faculties,” Bosiljevac said. “We are empowering other students to go to them because their message might be different than what we might bring.”

The debate ended with the candidates’ restatement of their goals. Bosiljevac said she and Stauffer aim to “connect, communicate and accomplish” to accommodate the wants of the student body.

“Our platform is to establish, solidify and unite,” Vogts said, “Establish face-to-face interaction between organizations and senators, solidify is to build upon the structure that has already been started and reform the positions already in ASG – we want to unite the campus as a whole, especially the students with faculty members.”

 
ASG hosts open forum, candidates campaign for April elections
Written by Bulletin Staff
Thursday, 31 March 2011 13:34
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ASG president Jonathan Rivers discusses the upcoming elections Tuesday afternoon in the Memorial Union. Chris Franklin/ The Bulletin

ASG president Jonathan Rivers discusses the upcoming elections Tuesday afternoon in the Memorial Union. Chris Franklin/ The Bulletin

Jonathan Rivers, president of Associate Student Government, announced upcoming events of the for the ASG elections at the ASG Open Forum, which was held at 2 p.m. on Tuesday in the PKP Room of the Memorial Union.

Rivers said applications for the executive positions are due tomorrow, and on April 4, senators’ petitions are due. The actual election starts on April 12 and ends at 3 p.m. April 13, Rivers said.

Three candidates also came to the forum. They talked about their goals, plans and involvements.

“Throughout the year, I’ve already begun on a plan to reform Corky’s Cab…students deserved to feel safe,” said Laura Bosiljevac, sophomore political science major and current legislative director for ASG.

Bosiljevac, together with Michael Stauffer, are running for ASG president and vice president respectively.

“Our platform can be summed up in three words – connect, communicate and accomplish…we can be the helping hand to help people connect to (ASG),” Bosiljevac said. “We know we are not all powerful, but we are the Associated Student Government – if we don’t know, we can at least send you to somebody who does know. It may take us three minutes to do that, but it will save you 3 weeks in looking for something.”

Ashley Vogts, junior integrated studies and pre-occupational therapy major, and Jennifer Cheray, junior marketing major, are also running for president and vice president of ASG. Vogts and Cheray’s current positions are fiscal affairs chair and business school senator, respectively.

“I think the main goal is that students are able to be heard,” Vogts said. “I work really closely with the leadership department and I am really educated on different leadership styles, different leadership roles and how to work with different types of leadership style, (which helps me) to become a liaison between student body and administration.”

Cheray said another goal is to build the interaction between senators and student organizations on campus. Vogts said their long-term focus is to do more cross-programming, which means to “make an event bigger and more impactful by having more organizations involved in that event.”

“For ESU to be a big part of someone’s college career, it is a lot to do with the events…and organizations they get involved with, so if we can make these events bigger, more successful, more impactful, then that college experience will be greater,” Vogts said.

In order to improve the interaction between students and ASG, both Bosiljevac and Cheray agreed that face-to-face communication between RSOs and senators is important.

“I feel like sometimes student voices are lost when it comes to the faculty and administration,” Vogts said. “We want to bridge those voices, so that people hear their concerns, complaints (and) the positive things going on.”

Cheray said improving the relationship between students and ASG should start with defining the role of each position in ASG and developing the structure ASG already has.

“I never thought (being ASG president) would be easy…no matter how much experience I had – I know it’s going to be a challenge, but I think it is a challenge worth pursuing,” Bosiljevac said.

Huibing Lu