Andre Hunter and Martin Weiss were announced as University of Wisconsin’s senior class president and vice president for 2016-17 Friday.
Only around 1,600 students voted in the election, and Hunter won the presidency with 34 percent of the vote, while Weiss won the vice presidency with 37 percent of the vote.
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A junior majoring in political science with a certificate in entrepreneurship, Hunter has been involved in numerous organizations on campus including various Associated Students of Madison branches, student council and student body secretary.
He currently serves as an associate justice for the judiciary and state wide finance director for College Democrats.
“I’ve really had a lot of experience with working in politics and working with the community and grassroots organizing. It made sense for me to take some of my experiences and insert them into the senior class [as president],” Hunter said.
Hunter said his first goal is to create a democratic voting process for the senior class to choose commencement speakers.
Graduation should be a collaborative event, Hunter said. He wants to make the experience more memorable and family orientated for students by possibly creating a graduation week full of events for seniors.
Weiss is a junior majoring in history. Originally from Indianapolis, Weiss said he came to Wisconsin after visiting the university and seeing the pride UW took in itself.
Weiss said he was “honored” and “humbled” to represent the senior class body and to be given the responsibility of embodying the Wisconsin Idea. He sees it as a chance to give back to the university.
“I think it’s an incredibly formative and amazing way to give back to a university that has given me so much,” Weiss said. “[UW] has facilitated a lot of great experiences for me and I’ve been involved in a lot of activities — I just want to give back.”
At UW, Weiss has been involved in a number of activities including Wisconsin Singers, Humorology and his fraternity Zeta Beta Tau.
Weiss said he wants students to be more aware of the senior class officers. The officers are in charge of representing the senior class, and he finds it hard to believe that the approximately 1,600 people who voted are the only students that care about senior class representation.
Hunter said that he and Weiss are thankful for the opportunity to represent the senior class and look forward to giving back to the broader campus community.
“We want to make sure that future Badgers have more opportunities than we’ve had and we want to make this a better university for everybody” he said.
In their new roles, the two will partner with the Office of the Chancellor, the Division of Student Life, the Wisconsin Alumni Association and the UW Foundation. Hunter and Weiss will also help plan winter and spring commencements.
