Student government: New year, new staff, new ideas

A new school year calls for new leadership in Student Government. After a hotly contested election in the spring of 2017, Cassie Laibly and Josh Fannin were voted as West’s 2017-2018 president and vice president, bringing fresh faces to student government. Maia Kent and Jared Erdman have taken over the secretary and public relations positions respectively. Matthew Mauk and Patrick Bertram, advisors of the Student Government, are enthused about the new year’s leadership.

“I am excited to work with the new leadership on Student Government. We have a great mix of veterans and new faces, bringing a unique outlook on the year,” Mauk said.

Laibly, taking over many responsibilities as president, appreciates the other new officers and class representatives.

“Many representatives are new to Student Government, which allows for a fresh new input of ideas and everyone has their own background, which makes us work really well together,” she said.

Though unsure of their cooperation in the beginning, Fannin also is excited for the year, as the officers have become a collective team.

“We really dove into the new school year and are trying to focus on what’s best for the students, whether that be through Homecoming or other events we have coming up,” Fannin said.

With Homecoming already under their belts, the new leadership has already had to step up and begin working together.

“Having Homecoming the second week of school was tough but we made it work,” Laibly said. “It was an opportunity to see the government come together for the first time this year.”

Along with Homecoming coming up quickly in the year, many events were added to Homecoming week, truly pushing the goal of the officers to increase student participation.

“Homecoming week went well, especially because we got more involvement and students had more options throughout the week,” Fannin added.

Homecoming was the first of Student Government’s many early year events. The group has many more planned throughout the year to come.

“The overall goal is to benefit the students and help them do things for the community,” Laibly said.

Some of the most popular benefits held by Student Government are multiple blood drives held throughout the year.

“We hope we can continue helping the community through blood drives because they have been very successful in the past,” Mauk said.

The team hopes to assist with many problems around the community.

“I would like to do the Open Mic Night fundraiser again this year, raising money for people who need service dogs,” Laibly said. “It was our very first year doing it and we ended up raising over a $1000, making it the largest fundraiser of the year.”

The students have also raised money for the natural disasters around the country by doing the “Tape a Teacher” fundraiser during Homecoming week, and have many more plans for the year.

“Something I would like to do is try to add activities in the dead area between Homecoming and Homecoming II and help raise money for the community and our school along with allowing students to have something to look forward to throughout the year,” Laibly said.

The new “W Hour” adds many new opportunities for the student body to become more involved with its government.

“The W hour gives us a chance to reach out to freshmen, which is something we have not been able to do for years,” Mauk said.

With more student participation and many activities planned for the rest of the year, the team cannot wait to serve the community along with the students of Oshkosh West.

“We want to let students know they are represented and they can reach out to us whenever,” Fannin  said.