ASUSU officers hope to come back for more
Students rarely thank them for their work and often complain about their decisions, but five people want to live their lifestyle for another year.
Associated Students of Utah State University officers Tagg Archibald, Les Essig, Tyler Olsen, Nick Robbins and Bethany Youngs all are running for positions in the next year’s council.
“I don’t really know college without being involved,” said Youngs, who is in the race for activities vice president with Robbins. “When I was at Snow [College] I did programming there and I’ve done programming here for almost two years.”
Robbins, the current administrative assistant, ran for activities vice president last year. He said there are some changes in campaigning the second time around.
“There are aspects that are harder and aspects that are easier,” he said. “Having a little bit of knowledge behind you always helps.”
Campaigning is always tough and “definitely not a walk in the park,” said Archibald, a candidate for executive vice president.
“To think that any of us have it easy to get into office is asinine because there are students that have great ideas and are running for office,” Archibald said. Youngs echoed Archibald, saying the officers that are running for next year’s office have to prove what they have done this year that makes them qualified for another term on the council.
Essig, a candidate for president, said he would like another year on council to continue with some of his ideas.
“There are a lot of things I want to do, things I know I won’t accomplish by the end of the year,” he said. “I know they’re going to bring about changes.”
Continuing the progress made while in office this year is especially important to Olsen, who is running for the same position, athletics vice president.
“I really feel like I’ve started something here with the blue,” he said. “I’m just trying to increase Aggie fever.”
Olsen said there are some ideas he has to continue the momentum he started this year in getting students to wear blue shirts to Aggie athletic events.
“I don’t want this to be the one-hit wonder,” he said. “I want it to be a tradition here at Utah State and I feel like I owe that to students.”
Essig said there is a learning curve for new members coming in to office and with another year on council, he could get right to work.
“It took some time to learn how things are going, I feel like now I understand how decisions are made,” he said.
Archibald said knowing who to talk to in the administration and getting a better understanding about how students feel about issues are benefits of having experience on council.
Robbins will try to accomplish a feat similar to President Duke Di Stefano. Di Stefano served as the administrative assistant last year before running for a space on council. He said the experience of watching the council, but never speaking has been helpful.
“Being able to observe and maybe not opening my mouth all the time requires me to listen,” he said. “Those observations would help me out.”
With both Robbins and Youngs running for the same position, one might think bad blood would develop.
“Bethany and I are friends, we maintain that friendship regardless of what happens,” Robbins said. “In my mind, relationships with people are what I value the most.”
Youngs said she will be involved with activities regardless of the outcome of the election.
“If I’m not elected I plan on pursuing my involvement with [Student Activities Board] again,” she said. “He’s got to do what he’s got to do.”
Elections will be held March 15 to 19, with final elections scheduled for March 18.
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