Husband and wife team serves USU
For many, getting married means dropping out of extracurricular activities to leave more free time to spend with that significant other, but for Nollie and Andy Haws, married life has only made them pick up speed.
Nollie and Andy are both seniors at Utah State University, and they’re both on members of the Associated Students of Utah State University for next year.
“There’s no reason to sit back and do nothing; married or not,” Nollie said.
Nollie, who is from Washington, is a public relations major and will be the ASUSU public relations vice president next year. Andy, from Logan, is a finance and economics major and will be the ASUSU academic vice president next year.
According to Nollie, they haven’t really gotten into it yet, but will both be extremely busy next year.
“That’s what we thrive on,” Nollie said. “I do the best when I’m running around with my hair on fire.”
Both agree it isn’t new for them to be heavily involved. They were both involved in high school student government. Andy was the student body president of Logan High School in 1996.
The two both came to USU with the Presidential Leadership Council, and it was at one of the retreats that they met. Andy had been back for three weeks from his mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They got married about a year and a half later in December 2000.
“We both thought about running for a long time,” Nollie said. “Andy told me I’d regret it if I didn’t run. He helped me realize I wanted to do it.”
Nollie said she had made a list of goals as a freshman, and running for office was one of them.
Their rationale for both running, Andy said, was if both of them were going to be busy they might as well be busy in the same things.
“We’re both strong individuals. We’re both opinionated. We both believe strongly in things. And we compliment each other well. We’re learning to support each other,” Andy said.
The campaign was the first taste they got of the stress involved in their positions. Since Andy ran uncontested, he got to be Nollie’s “campaign slave,” she said.
“He really motivated me,” Nollie said. “He worked hard for me. It was such a close race with very qualified candidates.”
She said it’s fun for them both to be involved because it lets them bounce ideas off each other, get advice and have meetings with each other. They work together and “chip in for each other” when things are particularly stressful for one or the other, Nollie said.
“It has been healthy for our relationship,” Andy said. “We’ve never really seen each other in really difficult or stressful situations, and now we have.”
Nollie said you have to learn to make time to be together. She said even if they just have time for lunch together, that time is special. A typical day for the Haws begins with class at 8:30 or 9:30 a.m.
They have classes and work until 4 p.m. Nollie works with Parking Services and Andy with Colors. They usually have about an hour for dinner together before heading to meetings until about 9:30 p.m.
Nollie said she attends about five meetings a week, and Andy attends about 18.
“I’ve always said 90 percent of students at USU just go to school, and that’s great. The other 10 percent like to get really involved in everything. We’re both in the 10 percent,” Nollie said.
Nollie said it’s definitely worth it and she wouldn’t change it for a million dollars.
“It’s fun because you get to see a different side of the university students don’t normally see,” Andy said.
But, “Some days you wish you could blend into the background,” Nollie said.
When they do need a break, Nollie said they like to go to movies, take walks or go down to Salt Lake City.
“Sometimes we just have to leave Logan,” she said.
When they graduate, they both want to work for a few years “somewhere interesting,” Nollie said.
“We want to travel around while we can and have some adventure,” she said.
They said they don’t plan on ending up in Utah, but they would like to stay in the West.
Nollie said they will be able to leave USU knowing there was nothing more they could have done.
“We see a lot of opportunity for the offices we’re in,” she said.