By Jackson Chadwick | Commuter Senator At-Large Lukas Phipps
Many might say that Lukas Phipps is one of the most familiar faces around campus, and he very well agrees. The Commuter Senator At-Large lays his case to be elected SGA Vice President: experience and passion. Phipps, a junior at Suffolk, was the only candidate who filed to run for the Commuter Senator At-Large in 2019 and received 82.3% of the vote in that year’s race; 16.71% of voters did not vote for a candidate while 0.96% of students voted for a candidate via write-in.
Phipps began his career in SGA as a member-at-large, essentially a senator but without the capability to vote. Throughout the past few years, he helped create Hemoglobin Helpers; he was involved in advocacy to ban conversion therapy in the state of Massachusetts; he served on the Constitutional Review Committee his sophomore year and is one of the co-authors of the current Student Government Association (SGA) constitution. As of today, he is the Male Vice-Chair of the Newburyport Democrats.
Last school year, the SGA passed a resolution which expressed approval of arming campus police with firearms. Phipps authored an amendment that would require more incident reports on SUPD police and security officers; his amendment passed unanimously. This year, he has co-authored all four resolutions that SGA has passed.
He is currently the Chair of the Diversity Committee and detailed why his experience on that particular committee adds to his qualifications. The past year, the Diversity Committee has helped sponsor Menstrual Awareness Week in coordination with the Suffolk CARES Pantry. This week was aimed at ending the stigma around menstruation and teaching people how they can access menstrual products.
Being Chair has reinvigorated one of his core beliefs: diversity is a strength, not a weakness. When a social media account was posting content targeting/harassing Suffolk Asian-American and African-American students, he and the Diversity Committee were quick to respond. And as he currently knows, he is the only Chair of an SGA committee to hold public meetings. If not elected Vice President, he would step down as Chair of Diversity but continue to serve as a member.
Looking at his campaign overall, Phipps breaks down 3 important values he intends to carry with him if elected to the office, the first being transparency within the SGA. One of his ideas is to release the text of drafted resolutions to the public 24 hours before the resolution could be debated or voted on. He would ensure that a disclaimer would be printed onto the resolution which states that the resolution is subject to change.
His second idea is to increase accessibility between SGA and the student body. As he put it, being Vice President is the “bridge” between the SGA and the student body, and he feels well qualified to expand that connection.
Finally, his third idea is conveyed by a term which he calls “responsive justice.” Essentially, Phipps wants to simplify the parliamentary language in SGA. He said that this language can sometimes be a restraint for students who are eager or trying to create a new club. Phipps is no stranger to parliamentary language: he has years of experience (including his time in Model UN) regarding the style and complexity of the language. He wants to ease that restraint, hoping it will be easier for students to get involved.
Phipps understands that some students are wary of the SGA, noting that transparency can very well still be improved on. He says that SGA needs to take a “proactive, not passive, position of service” where senators are “going out of their way to help students.”
As for the remainder of his time at Suffolk, Phipps is excited, whether that means being elected Vice President or not. Experience is his forte and argues it will help equip him with the abilities to perform the duties of Vice President. Beyond Suffolk, however, he aims to be in a position or career where he feels like he can make the most change, regardless of title or status. And as you can probably tell, he wants to run for public office.