Abe Rodriguez: USUSA Executive VP candidate interview

Our USUSA committee and council settings are often very friendly. How would you handle disagreements and make difficult decisions that may go against your fellow officers?

That is a great question. I had a great opportunity to go and see what it’s like for the executive vice president to chair meetings such as the academic senate. I’ve noticed how other officers engage with each other and how they share their thoughts and opinions about certain matters. In the end, I’ve come to the realization that whenever we find ourselves in a setting where there may be disagreements, which is something that we really want because it shows that we have diverse thoughts and opinions, we need to focus back on the bigger picture of why we are here. In the end, we’re serving our student body. Really, it’s all about us being able to work together and fight and advocate for us. At the end of the day, we’re not put in a certain position or certain title, we are all one, right? We’re all students. We’re all going through things, and it’s more of just looking back that way and being able to remind them of what that is. Then, we’re able to cooperate with each other. Truly listen and understand each other, share our ideas and come up with better ones through collaboration.

What is the first goal you would strive to accomplish if elected?

I’d say before wanting to accomplish any goal, we need to focus on the group, all the officers, everyone that’s running that you’re going to be working with throughout the year. We need to first focus on getting to know each other. Seeing why we’re running and truly understanding what it is that we all want to accomplish during our time here. Once we’re able to understand where we’re coming from, get to that point and truly focus on building relationships with each other, we can proceed to work and get things done. Because I truly believe that there’s only so much you can do alone. Together we can accomplish so much more. I truly mean that and a lot of my goals that I have for USU highlight the importance of collaboration. Again, I don’t know everything, neither do all the other officers. And it’s really important to be able to get that input from others that represent different groups on campus because that’s the only way that we are truly able to make it fair and make it more inclusive. After being able to understand where people are coming from getting to know each other, we can get on the right track.

My first goal would be to work collaboratively with the student affairs as well as with the Executive Director of Diversity and Organizations to improve the way of communication between us USA and the club and organization leaders so they feel like they have a voice, and then be able to work with Student Affairs to make things more accessible and convenient for students and help both the clubs and organizations as well as students get to know the clubs and organizations that we have and that they can get involved with to find their family within the Aggie family. I plan to do that by working with Student Affairs in their expertise in handling the new MyUSU home portal and be able to have the club in organizations have their own announcement page on the front, so that students, when they log in, whether it’s a Tuesday or Wednesday, can go in and see all the clubs and organizations that are meeting with times and places. That way they feel included. They feel like they are able to know what’s going on in the university, because unfortunately not all of us are spending time in the TSC. Not all of us are on campus all the time. We have a lot of students who are busy and when I mean students, I mean us. It’s all about us. A lot of us are busy. A lot of us have jobs and other things going on. Sometimes it may feel like we don’t know what’s going on on campus and we deserve to know, so I thought about the MyUSU home portal because it’s something that we all access before being able to work on academics and get things done on campus.

If you are not elected, how will you continue to be involved at USU?

I’ve been blessed with the opportunities I’ve had at Utah State. My freshman year wasn’t easy. I wasn’t involved with anything. I didn’t know many people, and my friends were the admission spell specialists. I remember being able to talk with some individuals about new ways to get involved. I was feeling lost because by the time I wanted to get involved with certain clubs and organizations, a lot of the deadlines passed and I wanted to get involved and start making a difference. I remember a time where I’ve lost and know what I did to address it. I had a good friend of mine that was a student advocate at the time, and she knew about opportunities with GRC to apply, and so I said I’m open for it. I’m willing to give it a try. I remember going into the interview, and they asked me what I want to do here at Utah State? What do you want to get done? And I told myself I didn’t know because I haven’t really been here long enough? But I just wanted to feel like I could belong somewhere. Sometimes it’s just hard to feel like you belong when you’re not really a part of something within Utah State. I didn’t get in and I was sad. But I told myself there has to be ways that I can start building up my experiences and truly get to understand what the resources are on campus and get to. Like I said, just learn more about the needs that we have here on campus. I’m just sharing the story because I feel like everyone has a story and everyone deserves to be heard. I always love to be able to have an opportunity to share mine and listen to others as well. Eventually I was able to get in with the A-team. That changed my life because I was able to get to meet people from different colleges on our campus that have different thoughts, beliefs, cultures, and it really helped me just expand and really understand that having diversity is awesome. You can’t thrive without it. And so, being on the A-team for my first two years was incredible. I’ve learned a lot from my experiences. I’ve been able to learn a lot about the resources and through that I was able to see a lot of needs on campus and through that organization, I was able to get involved in different clubs and organizations, from different colleges at USU and working in athletics and working with student athletes. For me, I was able to start learning and seeing there is work to do.

If I were not Executive Vice President, I would focus on what ways I can still have a massive impact on our community. I’ve noticed that through the student fee board, one of the things that that exec VP chairs and conducts, I was able to see how those things look. I realized that they do have a massive impact because I believe student fees are so important. They really do have a say in terms of the experience that students have and what ways can we enhance it while making sure that we’re not taking a lot out of your wallet because it hurts. For me it would be getting involved in other organizations or in other groups that are directly related with student government, to be able to represent the students of all the other past experiences and all the other diverse clubs and organizations I’ve been a part of, again to make sure they have a voice and represent us.

What makes you stand out from other candidates? Why should people vote for you?

I truly believe that it is important to have a balance between having a personality and being professional and getting things done. For myself, I’ve always loved getting to know people and getting to know their story and who they are. It’s great when you’re able to talk about the things that you want to do, the things you want to get done and sit and you know when it’s time to be serious. I believe before you even want to get anything done, you need to have a conversation. Without a conversation you’re not going to understand the other individual. If you’re wanting to work in a team setting, you’re just not going to get things done. And so for myself, what makes me different is that I’m approachable. I love getting to talk with people from all kinds of backgrounds, right? And I love supporting it. Right because again, diversity is what we need in order to thrive. You can learn so much from me, and I love getting to learn from others. It’s really just doing things because of the people. Without all the people I’ve met, I wouldn’t be who I am toda,  and I wouldn’t be where I am without them.

What is the most recent TV show you binge-watched?

I recently got a subscription to Apple TV. The first thing that popped up was Ted Lasso, and so I watched the first season over winter break. I love Ted Lasso because he’s just very optimistic when things go wrong, like he just is always looking at the wider picture. It also kind of reminds me of Elf too, because in my backpack I carry a picture of Buddy the Elf. I love to just carry it around because whenever I have a rough day, or when other students that walk by and they see it, it just puts a smile on their face. You know I always love to be able to just look back towards these characters and know that even when things are not going right, at the end of day it’s a blessing that we all get to live, that we get to breathe, that we have food on our table. But yeah, Ted Lasso has been awesome and that’s been that’s been the show. I’ve been watching.

-Jared.Adams@usu.edu