ASUSU: Extension VP
Keeping the ball rolling is the main focus for extension vice president candidate Kelly Mendenhall, a senior marketing major.
“I’m on the committee right now, and I’ve been on the committee for the last year,” Mendenhall said. “All the hard work that we’ve done, I just don’t want to see that go to waste. We’ve made some pretty good steps.”
With each of the Extension groups electing their own presidents, Mendenhall would like to help them establish their responsibilities and help train them. He also hopes that together they will be able to get the Extension sites more involved in the university.
He plans to have bimonthly meetings with the president via satellite.
“I can sit here in Logan and see what their problems are and what I can do to help them,” he said.
Mendenhall will also visit the sites once a semester so the students at these locations know who is representing them at the university level.
He would like to continue to see the monthly newsletter go to Extension students so they can see what is going on at Utah State University and what the Extensions vice president has planned.
He would also like to continue the efforts to get the concrete A’s at each of the sites. The A’s would be much like the one found by Old Main.
“That’s one of the things we don’t want to go to waste,” Mendenhall said. “We’ve done so much work for that.”
He said his experience speaks for itself. He is also taking classes with the Extensions program.
“I’m an Extension student myself and I know what they are going through,” he said. “It has allowed me to see what is going on and help out as an Extension student.”
Coming from the small town of Kamas, Utah, Brent Ure, a sophomore international agribusiness major, said he feels he understands the needs of Extension students at USU.
“Most of your Extension students are small town people who come from the farm,” Ure said. “I know what they are thinking.”
He said it is important for students to get involved. Running for office was his way of doing just that.
“If you don’t get in and participate, you don’t have room to gripe when things don’t go the way you want them to,” he said.
Ure would like to coordinate the efforts of the Extension branches with those of the university and act as the feedback go-between for the two groups.
In order to accomplish this, he said it is important to use a council made up of Extension students. Each week, he would like to “meet” with the council, even if it is by phone. He also plans to visit each of the Extension branches. He would take a trip to a different one each month.
“Extension as a whole needs to be looked at in a different way,” Ure said. “I would like to see participation increase.”