Council of Student Leaders presidential candidate and current vice president Miguel Caldwell alongside running mate Karl Vogl II answered questions about their cabinet goals at a public candidate forum.
The event was hosted as a part of the annual CSL election cycle and was attended by CSL members, students and faculty. Caldwell and Vogl spoke as the only ticket running at the time, introducing their campaign platform, “Engage, Enable, Empower.”
“Our platform, ‘Engage. Enable. Empower,’ was created with the uplifting of Winthrop students in mind,” Caldwell wrote in the ticket platform statement. “As student body president and vice president, we recognize that we cannot properly uplift students if we don’t take the necessary steps. Therefore, we want to engage students in the Winthrop experience, enable students to tackle leadership challenges, and empower them to leave Winthrop stronger than before they came.”
Caldwell also answered questions about leadership and CSL’s relationship with the student body and administrative leadership. He defined his relationship with leadership and service, calling his past work as CSL vice president and current election campaign “all about serving people.”
“Leadership is service. It’s service that you allow to fuel you to guide other people to some type of common goal. For me, that shows up in my volunteer work, that shows up in roles that I serve as a Resident Assistant, as a Close Scholar, it’s all about serving people and letting people know that I’m here for you and to represent you, to take you with me to this common goal,” Caldwell said.
Vogl primarily answered questions about supporting and communicating with student groups, particularly with groups that have already been chartered. He stated that the pair will aim to increase attendance from students and student groups at weekly CSL meetings and encourage the use of student allocations for student group activities.
“For me, one of my main focuses, if elected as student body vice president, would be to ensure that organizations know that money is there to be spent, and also do anything we can to make sure organizations are getting the money they need and having the experiences they wanna have. The money is there, you just got to know how to go about getting it,” Vogl said.
More information on the running ticket and election schedule can be found online at winthrop.edu. An election rally for the ticket will be held on April 6.
