On Monday afternoon, WNEC FM held a town hall on the third floor of the Simon Center giving both candidates for Student Senate president a platform for their election run. Hosted by senior Daryl Perry, Junior Lily Geber and Junior Tyler Baker were both given an hour time slot and were asked questions regarding their candidacy.
Geber was given the first hour, to which she hammered home her goal of fixing the communication and shuttle problem at New England College.
“Students deserve to know what’s going on,” Geber said. “Since students can’t send emails out to the student body, we don’t know who is getting what email which leads to problems.”
Baker continued the broadcast on the second hour of the event. Within the hour he shared similar problems with the communication at New England College, and even took it a step further with criticism of the colleges President, Dr. Michelle Perkins.
“Everyone knows that she has a secretary writing those emails,” Baker said. “There’s a gap in communication with the President. Come to events. Support your students.”
Both candidates were asked about recent racist and homophobic vandalisms that have plagued the college over the past couple months, and both had trouble with the school’s response.
“There needs to be a greater consequence, this is why these vandalisms keep happening because no one is getting in trouble for it,” Geber said.
Baker shared similar remarks.
“They are not acting on these issues, administration is not supporting those students who were affected by these, they are not being seen,” Baker said.
For WNEC, this was a step in diversifying their content, this being the first event like this this school year. The event was organized by Station Manager Adam Richards and Communications Advisor Colleen McElveen.
“Usually, with radio, it is very binary,” Richards said, “So keeping our minds open to things like political events, live shows and podcasts will definitely help our growth as a station.”
The candidates will be having their final debate on Wednesday, April 13, in CEI 110 on the Henniker campus at 6 p.m.
Voting begins on April 13 and ends at 11:59 p.m. on April 18 on Blackboard. Voting is open to all undergraduate students, including, for the first time, seniors.
