Elle Rogers is the Second SBP Candidate for the 2018 Election

Elle Rogers ('19), a Philosophy major from Indianapolis, is the second candidate to announce the intention to run for Student Body President.

“King’s is my home,” said Rogers. “I came here and I thought I knew what I wanted and where I was going in life, and I was really externally focused, but King’s pulled me inward and showed me the beauty of [living] life together.”

Rogers would like to see this realization occur across the whole student body, which can only happen when there is proper collaboration between the different minds at King’s. She wants the Council and the Cabinet to work as a support system to make that collaboration happen.

As it stands, Rogers thinks the Cabinet and the Council end up reflecting the concerns of the ten houses, but that they need to broaden that perspective to voices that are involved elsewhere on campus.

“The president of the King’s Players has concerns that are just as heavy [as] a house president,” Rogers said.                                                      

Rogers fears elected SBP’s choose to appoint his or her best friends to the Cabinet instead of those who are best suited to serve the community. To fix this, Rogers would like to streamline an application process to serve on the Cabinet for future elections.

“Any student who is eligible to run for exec positions is able to run for the Cabinet, yet there is no formal application process,” Rogers said.                    

Rogers would like to see students take better ownership of the space at King’s as well. Rogers sees this happening through better communication and making established roles more effective.                     

“We should get an email of the things going on in the orgs,” Rogers said. “We should provide feedback forms on the King’s website so that students can ask questions and express concerns so that they can get involved.”

Rogers sees King’s as a real home for students, and students could get more involved with that home if they felt able to make it their own. To further take ownership of the three floors of the UFT building that is King’s, different orgs should have a streamlined process for hanging their work around campus. Every change in King’s spaces must be student-focused.

Beyond hanging art, Rogers wants to ask Rich, the Director of Facilities, if there are any projects that students can help him out on. Doing so could help students feel as if they are truly a part of shaping King’s.                    

“I will spend every day fighting and risking everything that I have to make King’s a place that we all can call home.”

King’s has several people working diligently on enhancing spiritual life, but “there is no way for them to understand beyond the committee structure what is happening with spiritual life initiatives,” said Rogers. To shape development, the Spiritual Life Committee needs to be a more serious focus.

Since attending King’s, Rogers has been a staff reporter for the EST, chairman for Students for Rubio, the founder of the Publius Society, and scholar for the house of Margaret Thatcher. This year, she has been serving as the Director of Communications for the Cabinet.                                               

Rogers believes that, since she has seen the perspectives of all sorts of students and leadership positions, she knows where this school needs to be in five years. She sees it as her home, and she thinks that King’s students are all meant to be here.                   

“I will spend every day fighting and risking everything that I have to make King’s a place that we all can call home,” Rogers said.