Three juniors in the race for ASUSU president
Three USU juniors, all dual-majoring in speech communications, are vying for ASUSU president in the 2011 elections. Campaigning begins Feb. 22.
All the presidential candidates – Ben Williams from Dallas, Texas, whose other major is business administration, Erik Mikkelsen from Bunkerville, Nevada, whose second major is human resources and Keenan Nuehring from River Heights, Utah, whose second major is political science – have a platform centered around students.
“My big thing is to put students first,” Mikkelsen said. “With that, I want to blow the doors of ASUSU wide open and make it more inclusive and open for people who don’t know how to get involved, but would like to.”
Mikkelsen said he plans on implementing his campaign by reaching out, recognizing and revitalizing. As president, he plans to reach out through programs like Aggie Blue and give presentations on a regular basis throughout campus. He wants to have a regular recognition of all clubs on campus by having more notoriety of club activities through the Utah Statesman and Utah State Today.
“I will use any way to get club names out there so people can see the things they can get involved in,” Mikkelsen said.
He also plans to revitalize ASUSU by ensuring that ASUSU is fiscally responsible with spending, especially because of the budget cuts the university faces.
Williams, the public relations chair for the Val R. Christensen Service Center and Nuehring, ASUSU administrative assistant both feel their previous and current ASUSU leadership positions will help them if they become president.
Nuehring currently serves as administrative assistant on the ASUSU executive council and as the Presidents Cabinet chair. He is also an appointed member of the Executive Council, Academic Senate, Capitol and Support Committee, Academic Opportunity Fund and Tier II Tuition Committee.
“When it came down to if I was going to run or not I thought, of course I am going to run,” Nuehring said. “We have so many projects that require continuity. I feel like because I have been here (on the ASUSU executive council) for the last year, I literally understand the time commitment more than anyone else.”
Williams is a member of the Student Advisory Council, A-Team, and Student Involvement and Leadership Center Recruitment Team.
“I know ASUSU and have worked with student government for two and a half years now,” Williams said. I know our advisers, I know our administrators, they have a working relationship with me and I feel like we, together, can get a whole heck of a lot done.”
Nuehring cares about helping resolve students concerns. While holding an ASUSU executive position, he started a “start, stop” student campaign that consisted of suggestion boxes designed to find out what students concerns and wants were. He is also working on the proposed Student Recreation Center as well as continuing to establish a common hour designated for guest speakers, presentations, workshops and presentations.
“Students pay for speakers and tuition but don’t have the opportunity to go to both,” Nuehring said. “If this is something we want to keep, I want to give students a competitive edge to make it in the workforce. I want to have prominent alumni come, workshops and fairs.”
Nuehring is currently working on a communication certification program with Tolson through the Institute for Communication and Leadership.
“The communications program is designed to help students understand basic communication skills and understand that leadership is not based on position, but who you are, where you are, and how to face situations that arise,” Nuehring said.
Williams said he also aims to continue the organization and construction of a possible student recreation center.
“As president, I am going to do is continue campaigning and working on the Student Recreation Center that Tyler and James Morales are seeing through,” Williams said. “It will be my main job to see that the building and the whole product is produced in an economic and efficient manner, using my business background to do that. I want to make sure that whatever is put inside is what the students want.”
Williams’ other platform goals include increasing the transparency of ASUSU operations by personally writing in The Statesman on a monthly basis about what he is doing, the meetings he is attending, and money that is being spent. His third goal is improving relationships with the Greeks and multicultural students by giving them four seats on his cabinet, and his fourth goal is changing differential tuition.
“Differential tuition is where individual colleges have students pay additional tuition per credit that they take. I feel that there should be a happy medium because the last thing we want at USU is for students to be deterred from a major because they can’t afford it.”
All three candidates expressed reasons for coming to USU with a main emphasis on the fact that they fell in love.
“When I came to Logan in November and took a tour of University, I absolutely fell in love,” Williams said. “I have fallen in love with the school even more every day since I have been here.”
“When I first came here, (administrator) Ross Peterson lived on my same street as me,” Nuehring said. “Ross was the person who always made sure I went to Aggie Basketball games. Since I was little, I was hooked.”
“Why did I come to USU? The question is ‘Why not?'” Mikkelsen said. “(Admissions director) Jenn Putnam and her younger brothers are my neighbors from back home. I thought it was cool that a person from a small town could come to the university and be involved in upper leadership.”
Although each candidate feels that their weakness will be time management, they all feel they have ample strengths to compensate.
Nuehring said he feels that because he is at school everyday from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., working his two jobs or going to school, people already come to him when Tolson is not present. Nuehring said one of the main reasons he wants to run is because he has gained an immense amount of experience this past year, so when he is elected he won’t waste time getting to work.
Mikkelsen said he feels his three strengths will enable him to be president: speaking, meeting new people and understanding them. Mikkelsen said as president, he will take time to talk to students personally. He wants students to understand that he was not majorly involved in high school and was shy. It was when he came to USU that he decided to make a new identity and become involved. Mikkelsen attributes getting involved in ASUSU organizations to who he is today.
Williams said one of his biggest strengths as president would be that he already knows ASUSU extremely well. He has been involved in student government since his first semester at USU. Williams feels that as president he will be able to accurately represent the students and execute what they want, because he is already in a key ASUSU leadership position.
– kayla.barclay@aggiemail.usu.edu