Katie Lee-Koven
What makes you stand out from other candidates and why should students vote for you?
In terms of this interview being for USU campus, I’ve worked at USU for 10 years and been involved also with the community heavily throughout that time, and as the director of the art museum, we do a lot of community outreach, a lot of collaboration with the community. The university is the largest employer in the valley, and I think that something distinctive about me is that I can work with stakeholders both at the university and with the city of Logan, relative to cover stations about growth and housing, and inclusive opportunities for our students and town and gown sort of issues.
Why should students care about who is on city council?
It actually is something students should really care about, and I hope that students register to vote because they can if they have residence here, and they can play a role in our local elections. There’s 18,000 students here in Logan, and I would say the most important issue — I’d say the two probably most important issues are growth and housing. We have, I think, about somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 on-campus housing options for students. Another 3,000 students already live in the valley. So we still have about 11,000 that students have to figure things out every year, and that number grows every year and compounds the issue. Logan City Council approves requests for new development, planning and growth, working with the Planning Commission. And so it’s actually a really important component to just affordable housing and accessible housing. So that’s one, the other is of course, transportation options, parking, and then just the quality of life as a student. You’re here for four years, and you want to be able to enjoy — whether it’s the restaurants, the local businesses, you know, whatever kind of activities are happening — you want to be involved with those, and so that’s mostly happening in the city of Logan.
What advice do you have for college students?
Follow your passion. I think when you follow what you enjoy doing, you’ll be able to figure out what to make of it. I was an art history major. I had no idea what I was doing with that, but I just loved art history. So I pursued that and was not a museum director for many years, but somehow that worked out. But I love what I do, and when I meet with museum studies students here on campus, I always just say that you’re out what you enjoy, and you’ll be willing to put in the time and effort to be successful in that.
What will you do for students as a member of the city council?
I already mentioned this before, but I do feel that working at Utah State University, I had a really great relationship with our previous president. I’ve met with our current president, I report to senior leadership here at the university and have great relationships with people here. I can call the director of parking and have a conversation with him if I need to about something. So in terms of solutions that impact students and the city of Logan, I think I am uniquely positioned to navigate sometimes contentious conversations and improve those communications.
What is one of the most important political topics students should be engaged with?
Relative to this campaign, I would say growth — growth and affordability. There’s something that I’ve discussed, actually with some of our senior leadership here, that I think is really interesting is the Utah Board of Higher Education, called USHE. One of their metrics for success for all universities is their percentage of growth, as well as completion rate, and in a city of Logan, where most students live here and we’re not part of the greater Wasatch Front, every year if a metric for the university success is student enrollment growth, we are compounding our student housing affordability and availability every single year. And so these two things aren’t really talking to each other. And I think those are the kinds of conversations that we need to be having and that students should be paying attention to.
What is your favorite restaurant in Logan?
If I’m going to have a nice dinner, I tend to go to Elements. But also you know, if I’m going to have brunch, I might go to Crumb Brothers.
What is your favorite Halloween costume you have ever dressed up as?
Well as the museum director, last year we partnered with the Cache Humane Society for a fundraiser with the student class on dogs and art. For Cache Humane, I dressed up as Bob Ross and my staff actually reminded me of that today and I was like, “Oh, maybe I’ll just be Bob Ross again this year.”