Salem State Students Make Voices Heard In Municipal Election

SALEM, MA — Salem State University students looking for the school to have a bigger voice in the city's politics had their chance to have their say in the race for mayor during an Oct. 18 debate held at the school's Sophia Gorden Center for Creative and Performing Arts.

Graduate student and Salem resident Samantha Giffen led the Frederick E. Berry Institute's efforts to organize the debate between incumbent Kim Driscoll and challenger Steve Dibble — both Salem State graduates — with a student slate of panelists asking questions.

Giffen is completing her master's degree in higher education in student affairs and is a graduate fellow for the Berry Institute. She is also the vice president of the student affairs graduate association and a graduate research associate for the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

She led the planning and logistics efforts, including recruiting and collaborating with the student panel.

"The Berry IOP places a focus on engaging students in politics, and we were able to emphasize that focus by having students front and center in this debate," Giffen said.

Student panelists included Cameron Foley, Tehniyat Hakim, and Sam Lim, who questioned the candidates with their own questions and those submitted by the Salem State community.

More on the first Dibble/Driscoll debate at Salem State can be found here.

Foley, of Ipswich, is a senior in the Commonwealth Honors Program and will graduate with a bachelor's degree in political science and environmental sustainability in May 2022. She is an executive board member of the Salem State Sunrise Movement, a member of the national political science honor society Pi Sigma Alpha and an intern for the office of Congressman Seth Moulton. She also works full-time as a manager at the Ipswich Ale Brewer’s Table.

Hakim, of Burlington, has been an orientation leader since 2019 and is president of the Salem State University College Republicans. Hakim works on campus in the university police office and will graduate with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice this December.

Lim, who lives in Salem and is originally from Syracuse, New York, is a second-year graduate student in the higher education in student affairs program. They are a senior graduate assistant for the LGBTQ+ programs in Salem State's Center for Justice and Liberation, president of the Student Graduate Association, is a member of the Salem Education and Scholarship Committee, No Plate for Hate Committee, the Cultural Council and is a trustee for the House of the Seven Gables.

More on the Berry Institute of Politics can be found here.

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)