The day we were elected to be President and Vice-President of the Student Government Association in April 2007 completely redefined us as students at Colgate. Rather than walk through the COOP or Frank and just wave or say hello to friends, we were transformed into people who were sought out to suggest changes and inquire about everything related to Colgate. We felt a strong sense of duty to do our best to address every concern, listen to every suggestion and answer every inquiry. We hope that the Colgate Community has benefited from our hard work, responsiveness, and transparency.

Through the past year we have had countless interactions with students, staff, administrators and alumni that have shaped us both as student leaders but also as active members of the Colgate Community. The biggest asset we had was not our fantastic Executive Team or even our extremely helpful advisors, but all of the people who stopped us in the hall on the way to class or late at night downtown to tell us what we were doing right, or wrong, on behalf of Colgate students. Although this feedback was overwhelming at first, we came to rely on it as a bellwether of student sentiment on campus. If it were not for the many students who took an interest in the work of the SGA this semester, we could not have advocated successfully for the interests of the students.

We are proud of our many policy successes, including revision of the Academic Dishonesty Policy, reinstitution of the New York Times campus-wide subscription, several new SGA-recognized organizations and a transition to the new SGA Constitution. In addition, we are excited to hand off many projects that are still underway including dining services reforms, renovation of Donovan’s Pub, implementation of environmentally friendly practices on campus, an expansion of fitness space and technology initiatives including Colgate Gmail and faster wireless internet. While we are proud of our completed and ongoing initiatives, we are the most proud of the incredible contribution that the SGA’s appointed and elected officials made to Colgate this year. Most notably, we would like to thank the Executive Team that we were fortunate enough to have working with us and former Speaker of the Senate and President-Elect junior David Kusnetz. He served to truly transform the Senate into an independent body that can be productive, meaningful, and a significant force for change at Colgate.

To all Colgate students who voted for us and have watched us serve the student body over the past year, we thank you and hope that you would make the same choice if you had to cast your vote again. We have greatly enjoyed serving as your President and Vice-President and have had enormous professional and personal growth resulting from the positions we have held. We have formed a friendship with each other and with others in the Colgate Community that we are confident will last a lifetime. Thank you for giving us this opportunity and know that we will be forever indebted to you for allowing us to serve the SGA and the Colgate Community.