Due to technical issues, part of the interview with Pete Kleine and Jordan Wilson was cut short. The remainder of the interview is transcribed below.
Pete Kleine and Jordan Wilson are running for Student Body President and Vice-President for the 2015-16 school year at George Mason University.
Klein, who is running for president, says that they are running on “a heavy services based platform.”
“Jordan and I have had the opportunity this year to, working primarily with the university services department,” says Kleine, who currently serves on student government. “Jordan and I realized that the every day student is affected by services.”
Kleine and Wilson say they also want to improve the Anytime Dining system through a new dining facility.
“If somebody says they’re going to get rid of [Anytime Dining], they’re not telling the truth. It’s here to stay,” says Wilson, a Government and International politics major. “So how do we improve it, how do we make it better.”
Wilson is a member of several organizations on campus including Cru, Golden Key International Honor Society, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Kleine is the current Vice-President of Academics for the Interfraternity Council, a former Peer Adviser and We Are Mason Academic Student Coordinator.
POWELL: And you all are also wanting to create incentives for off-campus students to make them feel more part of the Mason community. What kind of incentives are you all talking about and how do you all kind of plan to implement that.
KLEINE: Yeah so Jordan and I think that one way to reach out to the off-campus community is through an expansion of the Mason shuttle program. There’s actually been talks currently going on of, hey can you send the Mason shuttle to our apartment complex, because we have that large Mason population. Jordan and I realize that there is a large off campus population here and that needs to be addressed. Those students’ concerns are just as legitimate and we think not only through Mason shuttle programs but through discount incentives and through the mason money program those are ways we can help Mason off campus students.
WILSON: Going off of that, I think one thing that makes our platform attractive, I think what makes it a little different than what you normally see, we don’t have overt off-campus ideas. We’ve tried to build how to better off-campus students’ lives in all o our platform initiatives. And just to go off of that, one more idea: we see often people say they want off campus events on campus. Well let’s move those events off-campus and get on campus student to go off campus because that will improve relationships off campus and on [campus] students have. It will improve our relationships with the city. I think it will be great for our student body.
POWELL: There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding greek life, fraternities and sororities around the country, how do you hope to alleviate tension between regular and non-greek students and greek students.
KLEINE: Sure, I currently sit on the Interfraternity Council Executive Board as vice-president of academics. Ive been associated with greek life since the spring of my freshment year and every time we have a meeting for IFC or chapter by chapter basis it’s all about how can we introduce the community at large to greek life. We’re a very small population, I think if elected student body President and Vice-President, we could continue to encourage, not necessarily for [Fraternity and Sorority Life] to go out an recruit but just to show our face more and show that all the benefits to what greek life has to offer a university life.
WILSON: As someone who was not in greek life my first two years here, I would walk through campus and see greek letters and think, oh their greek, and not think anything of it. So I think in our administration we would push for the greek community to just get out on campus, like Pete said, so that the student who’s not in greek can put faces and values and morals to what the greek letters we wear on our chest represent.
POWELL: Okay, is there anything else you all would like to add?
KLEINE: No, we really wanted to thank you for having us. Of course, encourage everyone to check out our Facebook, Twitter and deff our website, www.kleineandwilson.com.
WILSON: And deffinitely one more thing, if you to our website we’ve got days and times listed that we’re actually out on campus. We don’t have anything planned, we just want to be there for students to come talk to us, ask questions, chill, whatever you want to do so I would encouarge everyone to come out and hang out with us.
POWELL: Thanks for joining us. You can check out all of our interviews with the candidates at gmufourthestate.com or on our Facebook page. I’m Avery Powell, for Fourth Estate.
Photo Credit: Kleine and Wilson Facebook page
