Quinn Leffingwell is running for Washburn Student Government Association vice president along with his running mate, Shayden Hanes, who is currently the vice president.

Leffingwell is a junior majoring in psychology and religious studies. He joined WSGA his freshman year in November of 2019. He started as a senator at first, and later he became the vice chairperson for Campus Security Affairs. Right now, he is the initiative assistant and helps serve as an assistant to the current president, Abby Trautman and Hanes.

“I think WSGA is a better student organization for working with a lot of different students. It is cool working with a lot of different student organizations because you help to fund a lot of them, and their abundance of opportunities is the reason I joined WSGA,” Leffingwell said. “I think communication is the important thing that runs the office smoothly. Getting a clear picture of what you need and what is expected of others and from you is important.”

Daniel Buller, campaign manager for Hanes and Leffingwell, agreed to the job because he believes that they are the best candidates to run WSGA.

“I think that it is self-evident why Quinn and Shayden deserve your vote. They are both well-liked and respected across many organizations, and indeed the university, for their kindness, leadership and their passion for Washburn. Quinn and Shayden’s campaign involves restructuring how student organizations and WSGA interact. I think they are going to be thanked for these changes,” Buller said.

Leffingwell is highly enthusiastic and passionate about Washburn. One of the main ideas of the Hanes and Leffingwell campaign is to connect student organizations. They have planned to have WSGA representatives assigned to each student organization so that communication between the organizations stays strong.

That is not the only change Leffingwell and Hanes are trying to make. They are also working with Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equality at Washburn to put sanitary products in bathrooms. They also want to provide reusable products for periods, such as period panties and Diva Cups.

“We want to get natural products all over the campus. With student health, they have a few on the campus, so we are thinking to amplify that. We want them to be reachable to all the buildings on the campus,” Leffingwell said.

Leffingwell also brings light to another matter on campus that needs to be addressed: mental health.

“Another big issue is counseling services. We want to get more capacity from them so that they can serve more students during the bad terms. We’ve been contacting the campus administration to get that done,” Leffingwell said.

Leffingwell and his team think that music and the STEM departments of the university need more attention from WSGA. The students of those organizations are absorbed in their own academic activity, which doesn’t allow them to be more explorative at the university.

“Making promises is hard in the campaign because there are certain things we can’t control. One of them is budget allotment. The main thing we want to do is simply specify a budget process, which would involve making students of organizations understand the budget process because each of the student organizations have the money they can spend if the register has good standings,” Leffingwell said.

The biggest challenge that Leffingwell has faced while in WSGA is the understanding that change takes a significant amount of time. One aspect of this challenge that resonates with Leffingwell is the plan of making sanitary products reachable to students on campus, which is taking them a long time to bring into effect because he and his team need to show why it’s important.

Edited by: Ellie Walker, Glorianna Noland