Hannah Lowell: Class representative of ‘26

Luke Young

He/Him

Managing Editor

04/22/2023

Hannah Lowell is the 2026 class representative for both her freshman and upcoming sophomore year. Holding the position of Member at Large and representing the class in all democratic matters, she has an important role in the future of the class. I got an interview with her to speak about student government and her plans for the future.

Why did you run for student representative?

For the fall semester, I ran because I really loved being in student government in high school. I was the Member at Large for my junior and senior years, and so I was surprised to find out that we had a student government at PSU. Not a lot of people were running for our class, so I figured, “Why not? I’ll just throw my name in there.” I was the only person who ran for member at large, so I automatically got it. Throughout the year I just loved the whole experience of working with all the other classes and all the projects we did as a community so I wanted to be involved again next year. So I ran again, and I got reelected as a member at large and campus rep.

What does a student rep do?

I mostly just talk with people in our class or the PSU community about their concerns, comments, or ideas about what we should do on campus. I report back to the Class Council, and then we bring it to the entire student government. We talk about what we can do and how we can fix problems. For example, parking was a big problem this year and a lot of people had concerns about it. I just take the class’s concerns and comments and bring them to the student gov’s attention.

What are your plans for the position next year?

I’d really love to make a big event happen for our class next year since we didn’t have one this year. I really want to go all in on that, because I think it would be really important for our class to get to know each other and make more friendships and just have fun. 

An event we were talking about was something to do with a bonfire with s’mores named some fun catchphrase like “sophomore smores.” We’re going to work towards that in the fall and get other big things going since this year was a little slow. We were getting to know how student government ran and the campus community, so now we can move forward and actually do something.

In your opinion, what is the most important issue on campus?

I’m biased because I’m a Woman, Gender, and Sexuality Studies minor, but I think that the lack of diversity and inclusion on campus is a problem. I feel like some people on campus aren’t as welcoming to minorities or people who aren’t like them, which is something that needs to be addressed more. People who aren’t nice to others should be called out on it because that’s not right. I think it’ll help make our campus community a lot more welcoming and a better place to be in. I’m hoping to work on inclusion with the Diversity Center to make more events happen. We had the Women’s march and it wasn’t as big of a turnout as we had hoped. I think promoting more things like that and having more clubs and organizations involved in that would help. We want people to think “Oh, they care about blank, blank, and blank, and show it” not that we just talk and have no action.

What’s your favorite part of being in student government?

I would say that for freshman year, I didn’t know anybody at the school, and being in student government helped me make quite a few of my good friends. Not just in the class of 2026, but in all of the classes and have branched out from them. So making friendships and making bonds with people has been my favorite part.

Hannah is looking forward to representing the class in the future and will do her best to reflect and bring forth the values of her class in the future.

This week the E-Board Parliamentarian, USSB Representative, Class of ’26 Treasurer, Class of ’24 Secretary, Graduate Representative, and all Class of ’27 Council positions. Per Director of Community Impact & Student Life, Jessica Dutille:

“The ballot will be open until Friday (9/8) at 3pm, and afterwards votes will be tabulated. Winners will be announced by Saturday (9/9) afternoon. Ballot Link: https://plymouthstate.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_elisd2MheZqo7oq  If you did not run for a seat and are interested in getting involved, contact Will Loughlin, Jess Dutille, and the PSU Student Life Office about open positions at psu.sga@plymouth.edu, or reach out on Instagram @plymouthstatesga”