Meet Your New VP: Chris Kraemer

Oratory recently elected juniors Drew St. Amant and Chris Kraemer as President and Vice President of the Student Council, respectively. Both are relative outsiders to Student Council; Drew previously served as Junior Rep, and this is Chris’s first time on Student Council. Recently, they’ve been seen as a breath of fresh air the student body desperately wants with their elected representatives, but they do have their work cut out for themselves and are already being besieged by many requests from the student body. This week, I sat down with Chris Kraemer to learn a little more about him and his plans for the school.

JO: What inspired you to run for student council?
CK: Student council had always been something that I wanted to do. Obviously, I ran last year and lost, but I had always planned on running again this year. Being a student here since 8th grade I have seen a lot of awesome things come to be at this school, but I have also seen a lot of negative change that I hope Drew and I will be able to fix.

JO: What do you hope to accomplish this year?
CK: There are a lot of things that Drew and I want to accomplish. One of our first initiatives (that will hopefully be the easiest to secure) is getting a few printers for the student body to use. Our school is probably the only school in the state that does not have printers for students to access. Most of our assignments are submitted online these days, but there are still the few that we need to have printed out. It’s easy to forget sometimes the things that you need to have printed out and I do not think that we should be penalizing students if they need something to be printed out. Another thing that we hope we can get for the seniors is an open lunch. Obviously, this is going to take a lot of work as we will need the rising seniors to gain the trust of the administration to let them leave the school to get food, but I feel like it is something that we can ultimately achieve. Finally, you can bet your butts that we’re going to get our class the barbecue that it so rightfully deserves.

JO: Which politicians (choose two) serve as ‘role models’ for you with regard to public service? |
CK: I am not too lectured on the topic of politicians who excel at serving the public, but I think I can come up with a few people. It’s tough to think of some good politicians today without being controversial but I know a few good historical ones. The first would have to be Robert La Follette. La Follette was a progressive senator from Wisconsin in the early 20th century. He was a man of the people who was committed to bringing down big monopolies and trusts. He also pushed to have the citizens of a state vote on its senators as before his time state senators were elected by the state’s legislature. Second, I would have to pick Charles Sumner. Sumner was a Civil War era Senator from Massachusetts who was an abolitionist. One day, Sumner made a fiery anti-slavery speech on the floor of Congress, and in response, a group of low life congressmen from the south proceeded to beat Sumner with a cane. Now I do not plan on getting physically caned during my tenure as the VP, but I am ready to speak my mind and get my message out there no matter what the response will be.

[Author’s Note: For those who do not know, Charles Sumner was caned during a debate on slavery by Congressman Preston Brooks, who felt that Sumner had attacked the honor of one of his slave-holding relatives a few days prior. It’s an interesting but rather gruesome story.]

JO: Anything you’d like to tell the student body?
CK: Drew and I are ready to serve you guys. If you ever need anything, not just an idea for student council, but literally anything, come find either one of us and we will be more than happy to help out. We’re looking forward to a fantastic year with you guys next year.

Photo Credits to Justin Oei