Daniel Mansueto

Junior and current Senate Head Daniel Mansueto asserts that his experience as a three-time committee head especially qualifies him for DCA. “I think you need to be on committees to be DCA to be able to empathize and know the struggles and hardships of being a committee head,” Mansueto said. “I’ve worked with two different DCAs. I’ve seen what works and how to communicate properly.”

Mansueto served as a head of the AFS, Performing Arts, and Music Committees before becoming Senate Head. While serving in those roles, he has developed an appreciation for the Student Government committee system. “I’m running for DCA because I think the committee system is such a valuable part of Student Government and also the Parker high school experience in general,” Mansueto said. “I think it can play an even greater role and give students an even better experience.”

Mansueto’s primary goals include increasing productivity at committee meetings and attendance and engagement at committee events. To achieve these goals, Mansueto intends to require committee heads to have a clear agenda before leading committee meetings and improve budget transparency through the creation of a spreadsheet so that committee heads are more aware of how much Student Government budget funds they can utilize. 

If the pandemic encroaches on the fall semester, delaying in-person school, Mansueto sees multitudinous possibilities for committee events, including Senate teach-ins, “Weekly” website quizzes, and joint-committee events.

To shift the committee impeachment trend, Mansueto plans on increasing awareness of deadlines. “I think the main reason why there have been impeachments, why committees receive bad grades is just because they fail to meet deadlines,” Mansueto said. “That mostly means they’re not holding committee events. A big part of my platform is making committee heads more aware of these deadlines.”

Because of the frequent impeachments of Students United and Model Home, Mansueto, like Ehrlich and unlike Dudney, wants to merge the two committees. According to his platform, “merging these two committees and reworking bylaws would help establish a more universal goal for the committee and give its committee heads a better sense of what their job is.”