Elevate Catholic U Campaign Focuses on Student Life Issues
Left - Instagram. Right - Patrick D. Lewis/The Tower
By Patrick D. Lewis
The sole ticket in this year’s executive board elections for Catholic University’s Student Government Association, led by Senator Jack Hermes (Class of ‘27), is focusing on student life issues in their campaign messaging.
The ticket, made up of Hermes as student body president, Brinkley Colquitt as student body vice president, David Margand as treasurer, and Danika Maraskio as secretary, has made a series of posts to its campaign Instagram account under the slogan “better faith, better fitness, better food, better Catholic U.”
In the “faith” category, Elevate Catholic U said they want to implement campus stations of the cross, ensure crucifixes are present in all classrooms, and advocate for in-class prayer. It is unclear if that will be mandatory.
For “fitness,” the ticket sais they want new treadmills and other equipment in the Kane Fitness Center, to keep the Kane Center open at 6:30 a.m., and to add spikeball, cornhole, and volleyball to the information desk in the Edward J. Pyzbala University Center. The Kane Center and fitness in general has long been a focus of Hermes in his Senate career.
As far as “food,” the campaign said they want to see a “bowl station” in the Pryzbala Center, student discounts at restaurants on Monroe Street, just south of campus, a “make your own smoothie/playa line” at the Garvey Dining Hall, and a “fix” for the line at the Chick-fil-A in the Pryz.
The statement ended with a vision of a “better Catholic U.” That included “brand new washers and dryers in every dorm,” printers in the Millennium, Opus, and Centennial Village residential neighborhoods, a WiFi router nodes around campus.
Hermes initially agreed to sit down for an interview with The Tower to discuss his campaign but then rescinded the agreement following the publication of an article about his ticket’s initial campaign announcement. Despite that, in an email to several staff members of the newspaper and a university official, Hermes questioned the ethics of the newspaper and said the article was “fake news.”
Hermes also included an AI-generated photo of his ticket installing washers and dryers which was also published on the ticket’s Instagram page. The ticket did not note that the image was AI-generated.
It is unclear if the Elevate ticket’s goals will be able to be accomplished due to well-known budget issues at Catholic University. An official with the Office of Residence Life told The Tower that the division has already been considering whether or not to renew the current washer and dryer contract and is not certain as of now that the contract could be renewed and whether that would include new appliances.
The official also said that a new contract would come with new washers and dryers and said Hermes was trying to take credit for discussions Residence Life is already exploring.
The election will be held on Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
