USUSA executive council candidates debate, Statesman hosts

The final candidates for positions on Utah State University executive council for the 2016-17 academic year participated in the Statesman debate Tuesday night.

All four candidates for both Utah State University Student Association President and Service Vice President participated, however, due to the extra time needed to determine the finalists for both positions.

To start the debate, finalists for Athletics and Campus Recreation VP, Blake Lyman and Nolan Wilcock discussed goals and ideas for athletics.

Involvement in the HURD is something both candidates hope to work on.

“There’s a lot of involved students who help plan throughout the year, but the HURD loses members throughout the year,” Lyman said. “What I want to do is… I want to recruit people to the HURD committee… I want to find members from different clubs, organizations, Greek, SAA who are involved in other aspects of life and bring the on the community to bring different walks of life sot hey can get their friends and get students from everywhere to our events.”

Wilcock also hopes to increase participation in the HURD.

“The HURD is a big part of what gets the student section going and with the direction it’s been going so far, with subcommittees in the HURD, I think expanding on that is good and the communication, I’ve been on the HURD for four years and am not really getting emails, so getting that up, and then getting students out there and involved,” Wilcock said.

Both candidates have their own ways they hope to increase the number of students at games, with Wilcock wanting to connect more athletes with students so that there is more desire to support at athletics events. Lyman wants to have more events and activities at the games to increase attendance, including working on the HURD’s reward program to incentivize students.

This is the first year the Student Alumni Association VP is an elected position and both candidates hope to meld work USUSA and SAA do as much as possible.

“The biggest thing I would do to shape this position is to hit the ground running with it, in terms of being an active member of the council, putting legislation forward for the students, as a voice of the student body, and especially the Student Alumni Association,” said Jamie Crandal, one of the candidates. “I think it’s about increasing the relationship of the organization as a whole, not just the relationship itself.”

“I definitely agree with Jamie, I’ve worked closely with both organizations and I see this as a really important opportunity to work together. I think the first thing I would do is to make sure are two organizations are really close-knit, and it’s about what we can bring to the table as SAA, and have a good relationship with USUSA,” said Rachael Fresh, the other candidate.

Both candidates feel that many students are unaware of what SAA and USUSA can do for them, and how they can be involved and both hope to increase awareness.

Student Advocate VP is a position to help with student concerns and come up with solutions to common problems and to lobby for students’ interests.

“The two main things I want to do for transparency are use the Aggie Advocate Twitter account more, it has about 800 followers and is underutilized, and I want to use that to engage with students,” said Brenna Kelly, a final candidate. “I also want to write a column for the Statesman, that’s something that’s been done in the past and been really effective. So students will pick up the Statesman and see what the Advocate has to say and what we’re doing in student government.”

Transparency is a major part of Matthew Clewett’s campaign for student advocate.

“I think there are a lot of issues that students are concerned about, not knowing what’s going on with the USUSA, particularly with student fees,” Clewett said. “I do feel it’s important to create a webpage on the USUSA website about those things as well as working with the Statesman, Aggie Radio, Public Relations Office.”

In regards to some of more creative initiatives the two have, Clewett plans to work closely with the Organizations and Campus Diversity VP to promote more involvement with different students to help them succeed, he said. Kelly has started a housing website for students to sell and buy contracts, review complexes and to discuss housing options in one location.

The Executive VP of USUSA sits on several boards and both candidates — Maegan Kasteler and Ryan Bentall — were asked to comment on how they would work on these boards.

“So I had the opportunity to sit as a student-at-large on the student fee board this year and I loved my experience there, and I really want to ensure that the students-at-large do represent a diverse group of students on campus,” Kasteler said.

Bentall’s specific plans vary, in regards to the fee board.

“My original initiative that I want to implement is creating a sub-committee where those seven students-at-large chair a sub-committee of 50 students who are randomly selected on campus, who represent better the student body’s choice,” Bentall said. “Those students will be able to share their opinions on the fees, so those students-at-large, trustees on the board, can better represent the student body’s voice.

Bentall is also hoping to continue to expand the mental health awareness campaign with training for student leaders, and hopes to talk to a diverse students to know their opinions, and wants to “have that open communication with all the senators… so I can have that perspective that all of them will give me.”

Kasteler wanted students to know that “I have an open-door policy, making sure that my contact information is readily available, so they can text me, email me, they can come talk to me in my office about any concerns that they have, specifically as they relate to the committees I sit on, so they know I am a voice for them and I want to hear their voice.”

Though all four original Service VP candidates participated in the debate, the two finalists were announced right before 9 p.m. — Todd Brown and Hope Newman.

“A push that I want to do is that I want to really work with communication between all the different organizations of the Service Center to make sure that they all know what’s going on and to make sure that they are all aware and making sure that they have their outline of what they’re planning on doing ready,” Brown said.

Brown also hopes to push for students to know about events so that more people will attend, using social media tools, as well as making sure everything is budgeted to stay cost-effective with events.

Newman also hopes to remain cost-effective, and to use social media to not only get students out to events, but to help keep costs low even with big events. She feels that every student could find a part of the Service Center they could be a part of.

“Social media campaigning is definitely something that needs to be taken advantage of. Everyone has social media and checks it daily. It’s a free way of getting people out to these projects. Email lists are also effective ways to reach out to people.

A few common problems with the Organizations and Campus Diversity VP’s job is getting different kinds of students involved, and balancing the work with diversity and the clubs and organizations on campus.

“My position is really huge. There are three groups to focus on: there’s the USUSA clubs, international students and Global Engagement, and Access and Diversity,” said Luis Armenta, the current Diversity VP. “With clubs I’m really working on the social media campaigns, so people know what clubs are available… with diverse students we created a diversity council to include Access and Diversity and Global Engagement to bring them closer together and really support them and get their needs met.”

“My main priority, if I get elected, as soon as I get elected is to go to as more organizations on campus that I can and really try to figure out what is their main goal for the upcoming school year,” Grace Jiminez said. “Because every club wants to accomplish something. I feel by knowing that, I will be able to help them out and reach out and use other resources, USUSA, to help them out. So I really want to highlight what they want to accomplish.”

All four original USUSA President candidates also sat on the panel, but the two finalists announced later that night were Mitchell Stevens and Ashley Waddoups.

In regards to the president sitting as a member of the Board of Trustees, Stevens said, “I would really try to stay the same person that I am, and by listening to the concerns of my friends and also my peers and representing all groups of the student body. I would have meetings with the different organizations — RHA, the Greeks, everyone — to make sure that I’m well representing every to take those concerns to the Board of Trustees.”

As the current Student Advocate, Waddoups sees sitting on the Board and fairly representing students as an important issue, she said.

“That’s why I’ve brought in the initiative of Pizza with the President into my platform, and with that we’ll be taking randomized focus groups every two weeks in my office, to share their opinions, likes, dislikes or how we can improve the university,” Waddoups said. “Too often decisions are made by one operating body — USUSA — and I want to broaden that.”

Both candidates plan to elect students to the Student Hearing Board as carefully as possible, by either taking from a wide variety of students, as Stevens said, or holding interviews with each beforehand to see how they handle certain situations, Waddoups said.

“I’ve enjoyed my Aggie experience here, I just really wanted to refine that, make it even better,” Stevens said. “I know that we can have lower student costs with free online textbooks; I know that it is possible to bring better food options; we can do better things with registration, we can put the syllabus on Canvas so we know what we’re getting into. I also really want to work with mental health efforts and improve that and I’m really grateful for all that you guys have done.”

“If you care about mental health and quantifiable change with that, sexual assault awareness, putting student fee information on the USU webpage and better officer visibility, I’m the one for the job,” Waddoups said. “Also, with me, you’re putting your vote behind experience… the officer experience is unique and again I think that’s really prepared me, through trial-and-error and mistakes it has made me the best presidential candidate.”

Students can vote in the final elections from Wed. Feb. 24 at 7 a.m. to Thurs. Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. at vote.usu.edu.

— mandy.m.morgan@aggiemail.usu.edu