University of Connecticut Hartford students recently elected Caitlin Savinelli, a second-semester accounting major, as their next Associated Student Government president.
UConn Hartford’s ASG president elect, Caitlin Savinelli, aims to connect UConn’s branch campuses and the Storrs campus. (Photo courtesy of Caitlin Savinelli)
Savinelli will be the first ASG president at UConn Hartford’s new downtown campus once it moves from West Hartford in Fall 2017. Because of this, Savinelli assures that she will work to make the change as smooth as possible for students.
“Student won’t be familiar with the area, so we’re going to have tours to get students familiar with the area,” Savinelli said. “We’ll have trips in town, so we’ll be showing people places to hang out in town. We want to make sure students are comfortable with the transition.”
Savinelli said that she aims to increase the connections between UConn’s branch campuses and the Storrs campus.
“I’m communicating with a couple students up at Storrs for creating a club for ‘branchers.’ So if someone goes to a branch campus, there will be a club at Storrs for if you transfer up there,” Savinelli said. “I’m also communicating very soon with USG in trying to have a free bus line for students from the branches up to main campus.”
Savinelli said she will bring her experience as an ASG senator to the role of president when she is officially sworn in at the end of this semester.
“I’m currently an ASG senator who serves on both the finance and programming committees,” Savinelli said. “For the finance committee, whenever a club has a budget request, I have to be the one to review it and let them know if there’s any suggestions or feedback. I make the decision with the treasurer of ASG…and senators vote if we should approve it or not. I also help the treasurer in any of the duties she needs help with.”
Savinelli also assists with planning events for students as a member of the programming committee, she said.
“I helped plan an ice skating event…I’m in the process of creating an award ceremony for the clubs on campus to let them know how appreciative we are of their hard work in April, and am working on bringing a hypnotist for Spring Week,” Savinelli said.
Savinelli said she ran for ASG president on a platform that called for increasing participation in student organizations.
“A lot of the time we don’t really have a lot of people attending our ASG or any of the other club meetings, so we want to expand the involvement by creating a calendar where all events and their times will be listed,” Savinelli said.
Savinelli said that she is engaged in outreach to many student organizations.
“Starting in January, I’ve tried to attend every club’s meeting at least once a semester,” Savinelli said. “I’m trying to go to all their meetings to see if there’s anything else they need from us.”
Outreach to students will occur in other ways as well, Savinelli said.
“Once a month we’ll do coffee chats, a time for students to get free coffee or tea, tell us their opinions and meet their elected representatives.”
Savinelli said that she is “excited to continue working with ASG.”
“I’m thankful for all the support I have gotten and received throughout the campaign process. I could not have done it without my constituents,” Savinelli said. “We heard from staff members that this was one of the most engaging elections in recent years. This was a close race…no candidate would have been a bad choice, and all were qualified.”
Alexandra Retter is staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached via email at alexandra.retter@uconn.edu.