Feuerborn re-elected as RHA president
The Feuerborn-Thomas slate was re-elected with a two-thirds majority.
Published Feb. 26, 2010
At the Residence Halls Association Ball on Friday, it was announced RHA President Rachel Feuerborn and Vice President Lauren Thomas have been re-elected.
An approximate two-thirds majority elected the slate, said James Heim, Department of Residential Life adviser.
“It feels fantastic,” Feuerborn said after the results were announced. “My second time around, I wasn’t too nervous.”
In accordance with RHA tradition, both the incumbent president and vice president spoke at the event before the election results were announced.
“If you were here last year, you remember me saying something about how it was going to be great when I was back up here talking about all the great things I did,” Feuerborn said.
Feuerborn spoke about RHA’s progress over the last year, saying she increased student involvement, beginning from the bottom up, by increasing freshman involvement.
Feuerborn ran against sophomore Jared Grafman, a member of The Maneater staff. Both slates ran on the promise of acting as the voice of the residents, but some students wondered whether RHA leaders should play a stronger role in leading the organization.
“I think the RHA executive board needs to step as a guiding post and be a voice of reason, rather than a voice of the people,” RHA representative Kathy Rudd said.
Rudd said she would like to see better communication between executive board members and representatives.
RHA sends legislation via e-mail to internal representatives. Rudd said the e-mails were usually sent out the night before RHA meetings.
“It really needs to be, say, the Wednesday before, so you have time to think about it and ask questions,” Rudd said.
Rudd also said she would like to see greater communication to students not involved with RHA. She suggested using RHA's online presence, such as its Facebook, Twitter and the organization’s Web site.
“Right now, we’re using those things and they’re sort of being utilized, but they could be so much more,” Rudd said.
Rudd also said she would like to see RHA’s monthly newsletter continue.
Feuerborn and Thomas ran last year with the goal of establishing a monthly newsletter that would share updates about RHA. The newsletter was published in August, September and October 2009.
“A newsletter is such a good idea, but so many people don’t want to have to hold something in their hands,” Rudd said. “They want a 30-word message that tells them who RHA is and what they need to know.”
Vice presidential candidate Colten Ross said the hardest part about running in the election was running against Feuerborn and Thomas.
“They’re a gold standard for RHA,” Ross said. “I’m not afraid to say that those two are amazing, to say the least. They’ll do amazing things.”