Erika Holdren will be the next president of the University of Maryland Residence Hall Association, the governing body announced after an election Tuesday night.
Holdren is currently the RHA’s dining services advisory board chair. She ran against current vice president Aiden Wechsler in an election decided by RHA senators. The sophomore government and politics major will be inaugurated next week alongside Quentin Hoglund, the newly-elected vice president.
“I’m the kind of person that will get something done if it needs to be done,” Holdren said in an interview before the election. “If someone’s having a problem, I will go to the end of the world trying to find a solution.”
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The RHA president represents on-campus students to university administrators, according to Scott Cronin, the current president and a junior government and politics major. The president meets with different departmental directors, ensures residence hall councils run smoothly and keeps on-campus residents’ needs in mind.
In her current role, Holdren has deliberated over student fees with Dining Services, worked to increase inclusivity for Muslim students and helped conduct student opinion surveys.
Holdren, who has been with the RHA since September, said many students do not feel heard by student government. She would like the RHA to utilize outreach methods to learn what students want — whether it be mental health resources or lower student fees. Holdren said her first course of action will be to work with the RHA vice president and senators to analyze student needs.
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“I want to just find out what the students need,” Holdren said. “Because from my position this year, the best results came from talking to students and hearing the student input.”
The RHA vice president also oversees the internal legislative body by working with senators and different committees, according to Cronin.
Hoglund, who currently serves as a senator-at-large, ran for RHA vice president against transportation advisory committee coordinator Ian Gould and senator-at-large Michelle Ameyaw. The sophomore government and politics major has been involved with RHA for two years as a former senator, committee chair and committee member.
Hoglund hopes to promote growth and advocacy among the senators and retain members through initiatives such as professional development workshops. He also hopes to work with the executive board to make RHA a fun environment.
“The biggest thing that I’m going to work on moving forward is putting the power of RHA back into its members,” Hoglund said. “I think we should be enabling and empowering our senators to dictate what our RHA stands for.”
