MAWSA Student President for 2020 Announced

Jacob Paterson has been voted in as MAWSA’s Student President for 2020. 

Paterson, who is the current acting President, was inspired to get into student politics after realising the lack of community on the Wellington campus. 

“I remember that first clubs day; I was like, ‘is this it?’ I was expecting so much and felt like there was so little going on here. To me, it seemed that there wasn’t really any community here and so I didn’t even try to build one for myself. And all through first year I felt lowkey lonely and isolated,” he said. 

“It wasn’t until 3rd year when I was like fuck it – I’m gonna do this myself. I started going to more events on campus and running shit myself – and found that as I got more passionate and positive about shit on campus, people around me seemed to be vibing this uni life a little more too.”

He hopes to continue improving campus life in 2020 by making it easier for students to feel they can get involved as well as being comfortable on campus.

“The first thing I want to do in this role is make our campus spaces better suited for students so we actually wanna stay here and hang out,” he said. 

“We’ll start with the student lounge and kitchenettes around campus – let us know what you think and feel free to claim this campus as your own. You’re the ones paying for it!”

Paterson will be supported by new Vice-Presidents Tessa Guest (Welfare) and Elaine Hague (Education). 

Basti Todd beat fellow candidate Simon Hubbard to be voted in as Communication Executive. 

Unopposed exec positions have been filled by Jordayne Katene as Maori Executive, Himanshu Chourasia as International Executive and Amy Palmer as Nursing Executive. 

Bella Bolter will be MAWSA’s first Rainbow/Queer Executive in 2020. 

CoCa Executive and Pasifika Executive are yet to be filled, with nobody having applied for either during the election.