Two tickets to battle for CCSG positions

It's out with the old and in with the new at the Council of Commonwealth Student governments council meeting this weekend.

CCSG will hold presidential and vice presidential elections tomorrow.

There are two tickets running to take the places of Tim Daniels, CCSG president and Richel Perretti, CCSG vice president.

n  Greg Bednarski, CCSG Student Affairs Committee chair and Tony Miller, president of the New Kensington Campus Student Government Association, are running on a platform emphasizing student support.

n  Will Rogers, CCSG campus chair and Jim Jaworski, SGA vice president of the Abington-Ogontz Campus are highlighting experience and no fear of fighting for CES students.

The most important plank in Bednarski's platform is to maintain the fight started by Daniels for equal student services University-wide, he said.

"First and foremost, pursuing more rigid standards for student services across the Commonwealth (is a priority)," he said. "Tony and I feel this is a quality institution we're attending, yet the University is not really providing (student services)."

The University should focus on putting out a product that is desirable and useful to its consumers, Bednarski said.

"We need a quality, consumer-focused environment. This is one of the top priorities on our list," he said. "This is one University. We feel it should operate as such."

Both tickets focus on the realignment of the Commonwealth Campuses. The main objective of both Bednarski and Rogers is to make sure students' rights and services do not get lost in the shuffle.

"A lot of planning is still going on with that. Tony and I will make sure academic, curricular issues will be resolved in the best interest of the students," Bednarski said. "There are bound to be cracks (with restructuring), we don't want any issues to fall thorough those cracks."

Rogers said he wants to make sure the degrees from the Commonwealth Colleges say Penn State University, not Commonwealth Educational System on them, because that reflects a discrepancy in status. If the degrees have Commonwealth Educational System written on them, it must mean the same to an employer as if it said Penn State University.

"What goes on those degrees, Penn State University or Commonwealth Educational System reflects status -- we want to eliminate different status," he said. "We don't believe in any slack of standards, and facilities needs to be even -- the same for everyone."

The Bednarski/Miller ticket will also focus on increased and more efficient lobbying for state funding.

Increased accessibility to CCSG central staff at University Park is key to the Rogers/Jaworski ticket.

"If there's a problem on their campus, they should be able to come to the president of CCSG to solve a problem," Rogers said. "We're willing to do whatever it takes to get some answers."

Commonwealth Campus students should have the benefit of the same extracurricular activities as University Park students have, Rogers said, such as Model United Nations and service fraternities.

"Offer (University Park) activities to CES (students) so they are given the opportunity to broaden their exposure," he said. "It's just as important they have access to same types of services and goods as University Park.