ASUSU fills appointed offices
Erik Mikkelsen, ASUSU president-elect, appointed Jordan Hunt to the administrative assistant position and Hannah Blackburn to the public relations director position, Friday.
Zach Larsen, programming vice president-elect, appointed Kylie Martinez as Traditions director, Kellen Hansen as activities director and Marie Squyres as the arts and lectures director.
The interview and selection process spanned three days. Seven were interviewed for the public relations position while 11 were interviewed for administrative assistant. Mikkelsen and Larsen collaborated with their predecessors and ASUSU advisers to choose students for the positions at hand. Mikkelsen said the applicants who applied created good competition for the positions, and making the final decision was no obvious task.
“Jordan is very different than I am,” Mikkelsen said about his new assistant. “I feel like it will be a good balance. He had some really good ideas for next year; he wants to make sure any legislation passed is posted online.”
Hunt, a sophomore majoring in liberal arts, who is on the Government Relations Council and co-founded the Student Nutrition Access Center (SNAC), also wants to be sure ASUSU council meeting agendas are posted online so students will be informed on upcoming disucssions in case they want to get involved in them. Hunt’s goal for a transparent student government matches the same sentiments Mikkelsen expressed in his campaign.
“ASUSU has hired someone to update the legislation on their website and I would make sure it stayed updated, and I would make it more user-friendly and comprehensive,” he said.
Hunt said he went into his interview having done a lot of research about the duties of his position, which he believes helped him get the job.
He said he will now “immerse” himself in the position by connecting often with current administrative assistant Kennan Nuehring.
Blackburn, a sophomore majoring in international business and economics, was selected because Mikkelsen was “impressed with her drive,” and he feels confident in her capabilities because of her involvement on the business school’s council and with LDS Institute programs.
“I want to be asked tough questions,” Blackburn said. ” I want people to evaluate what ASUSU is doing. I want to be open and honest, and always want to instill confidence in the students.”
She said she does not believe the public relations director position has been very involved with the students, and wants to become someone students can trust so that when elections roll around they will be comfortable confronting her with question. Blackburn would also like to see social media outlets used more to reach to reach students, because the 800 students currently connected to USU’s Facebook page do not represent all the students who have a Facebook account. She said this will be the most effective method to bring students to campus events.
Larsen had three directors to select and said the application process for appointed positions was more in-depth this year, and he felt that he had great options after whittling down the number of applicants. Four were chosen for interviews in each position.
“I was looking for something that’s going to be diverse and inclusive, and wants to have a lot of events that are really going to not just get the same group that goes to the Howl and that goes to Mardi Gras,” Larsen said.
Squyers, a junior creative writing major will be the 2011-12 arts and lectures director, and was previously involved with Salt Lake Community College’s student government. Upon coming to USU in the fall of 2010, she became involved immediately with Diversity and Organizations council, Aggie Radio and the Kappa Delta sorority.
“I think that an imposed Common Hour is not cool,” Squyres said. “I know people come for their lunch hour from work to take a class. Imposing it is kind of ridiculous, but I guess we’ll see how it goes the first year. If it doesn’t work I hope it will be reevaluated.”
Squyres has been brainstorming to find activities that may appeal to diverse student crowds, and is a fan of the Poetry and a Beverage event that is held monthly on campus. One idea she had was to bring the author of “World War Z,” Max Brooks, to speak, because a lot of students were interested in the campus-wide game of Humans vs. Zombies. She said she will go into the year with students’ money in mind, and believes students should not have to pay for the events organized for them because student fees should take care of it.
“The people who went to BJ Novak enjoyed it, but I wasn’t one of those people because I wasn’t willing to pay the money for a ticket,” Squyres said. “I hope I can bring some people next year that won’t be such a burden on students’ pockets.”
Newly appointed activities director Kellen Hansen, a sophomore majoring in Spanish, said students can expect to see more “high-end” events, but they will be more money-efficient. There will still be the large events such as Mardi Gras and the HOWL, but students will have a greater quantity of small events in between. Hansen has spent the majority of his time with Activities on the marketing side and said has been able to evaluate what has and has not worked with this year’s events.
“Last night after Zach called me, I seriously laid in bed wide-eyed, thinking, ‘what can we do this next year that’s better?'” Hansen said. “I definitely want to step up to the plate here, I don’t want to let anyone down.”
The newly appointed Traditions director Kylie Martinez could not be reached for comment.
– catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu
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