Meet the Candidates: Executive Vice President
Max Alder
What year are you in school? What are you studying? Where are you from?
I am a sophomore here at Utah State. I am double majoring in finance and economics in the business school, and I’m from Tooele County, specifically Stansbury Park.
At what point during your college career did you first feel like you were truly an Aggie?
I come from a long generation of Aggies. My parents both went here, and both of their parents went here. So, I’ve been around the Aggie life pretty much my whole life, and I kind of always thought I would know what it would really feel like being here. I’ve been going to basketball and football games my whole life, and I sat in the same seat every single year for football, and last year, my freshman year, I was no longer with my family. I was in the student section with all my peers, and I remember how amazing that feeling was. I thought to myself, “It’s real. Now I’m really here. I’m really an Aggie.” I wear the U-State, and I could look across and see my family, and I thought, “Yeah, it’s my time.”
Why do you feel it is important to include and support students across USU statewide campuses?
Every single one of our campuses makes us stronger as a whole. The fact that we have 30 campuses across the state is really very cool, and they make us stronger, and it’s important that we here in Logan return the favor and make sure that their voices are heard and their needs are met in order to make sure that our environment all across the state is collaborative, inclusive, for just an overall better experience no matter what campus you attend.
How would you handle disagreements with other USUSA officers, and how would you handle making difficult decisions that may go against the other officers?
It’s important to remember why we all are here. It’s important to remember why we wanted to run for USUSA in the first place, which is to improve student life and make sure that this university and the students have the best experience they can. While we all come from different backgrounds, we’re all going to have a little bit of different ideas, and we’re going to have a little bit of a different idea of what we think is best personally. And we’re all going to have great ideas, but some of those ideas might disagree with each other, so it’s important to remember that we’re all there. We all share the same common goal, whether or not we agree eye to eye on the smaller things, and it’s important to collaborate, find a middle ground and choose the option that best suits the students because it’s not about us, it’s about them. It’s about the people that don’t get to make the decisions all the time. It’s about the greater student body, the 20-some-thousand students that need their voices to be heard, and whatever decision that I make or that we make is in their best interest.
As chair of the Academic Senate , how would you go about prioritizing the needs of each college?
A lot of my campaign is based on making sure that no matter what college you’re in, or what you’re majoring in, you have equal opportunity. Whether that be career development tutoring or just general academic resources, I want to make sure that every single student, every single college, is given the same direct face-to-face assistance. I want to make sure that the senators make their voices heard too, and that what they say and what they do goes beyond just the academic needs of their college but that they prioritize expansion and overall student life within the college that they are over.
If you were an Aggie Ice Cream flavor, what flavor would you be and why?
This one might seem a little boring, but I love cookies and cream. I grew up on cookies and cream. I’m not a huge ice cream fan as much as I was when I was a little kid, but I still absolutely love cookies and cream, and nobody does it better than Aggie Ice Cream .
Brayden Adamson
What year are you in school, what are you studying and where are you from?
I’m from Salem, Utah. I study finance and accounting. I’m in my junior year here at Utah State.
At what point during your college career did you first feel like you were truly an Aggie?
It’s kind of a crazy story, and I’ll talk more about it throughout my campaign. I originally started as a chemical engineering student at the University of Utah, and I got to see a little taste of what college looks like and the feel at University of Utah. I came here, and from my first True Aggie Night, I knew that the people here were something special. I wanted to be here, and I felt like a true Aggie that night.
Why do you feel it is important to include and support students across USU statewide campuses?
I feel it’s important to include all of our 30 campuses in decision-making. I feel oftentimes the Logan campus is seen as the big brother, and it is the largest campus, but there are other people that need to be heard and seen. I think that inclusive in nature — make sure no one is forgotten about.
How would you handle disagreements with other USUSA officers, and how would you handle making difficult decisions that may go against the other officers?
If I’m elected, the point is to be your seat at the table, and through that, that means voting and proposing what you want in. If that means I have to disagree with the candidate and disagree with other elected USUSA officials, that’s okay, and I believe that everyone that’s elected is here for the Aggies and the student body, and we can work from there.
As Chair of the Academic Senate, how would you go about prioritizing the needs of each college?
Like I was saying earlier in my previous questions, the point is to hear feedback and to be your seat at the table. I want to be more open with communication and understand what each college is struggling with and what we can be better at and being their seat at the table and getting stuff done.
If you were an Aggie Ice Cream flavor, what flavor would you be and why?
Oh, that’s an easy one. I’d be Aggie Blue Mint. That was my first one I ever tried here, and from that moment, I knew Aggie Ice Cream was the best.
Will Hull
What year are you in school, what are you studying and where are you from?
My name is Will Hull, and I’m running for executive vice president. I’m from Seattle, Washington, and I’m studying kinesiology with a music minor.
At what point during your college career did you first feel like you were truly an Aggie?
It was probably my sophomore year because that’s when I chose to get involved on campus more and go to more events, and that year is the year I started getting involved in undergrad research. I picked up a TA-ship, and that helped me be more involved on campus and helped me to just feel more connected and like an Aggie.
Why do you feel like it’s important to include and support students from across statewide campuses?
I love this question. One of the things that I do is I’m the statewide outreach director for the College of Education and Human Services Council, so I’ve been able to talk with a lot of students that attend different campuses across the state. We have like 30 of them. I think that the biggest thing is that students need to feel that connection to other students. The College of Education and Human Services, for example, only has 190 students in at Eastern — which is our second biggest campus — and so establishing that connection with those students helps them feel more included and part of this Aggie family.
How would you handle disagreements with other USUSA officers, and how would you handle making difficult decisions that may go against the other officers?
First and foremost, just leading with kindness and being direct with them about how I feel is a good option, and then also consulting with our whole Executive Leadership Board and ultimately coming to the decision on what we’re going to do as a group. We have that board for a reason, so it’s not just one person always making the decisions.
As chair of the Academic Senate, how would you go about prioritizing the needs of each college?
The best thing to do is to ask those senators about their needs because each college is different, and each college has their own unique set of challenges and unique student bodies. I’ve got a little taste of that working with our College of Education and Human Services senator this year, as I’ve served on her council. Through that, I’ve been able to see kind of what her job is like and also to kind of figure out some of the things that she might be dealing wit in regards to her senator position.
If you were an Aggie Ice Cream flavor, what flavor would you be, and why?
I’d probably be something like Aggie Blue Mint. Personally, that’s my favorite flavor, and I think that it’s a unique flavor, and I like to think of myself as kind of a little bit unique in some way.