Officers claim they fulfilled 2013 election platforms
Student elections for the 2014-15 academic year are around the corner, and current officers are reflecting on campaign promises made nearly a year ago.
“I think there’s a dual responsibility in fulfilling the platform and also holding them accountable and investigating their platforms,” said Trent Morrison, last year’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences academic senator and current marketing intern for Student Services.
Thomas Rogers, Programming vice president, campaigned with a platform based on planning events appealing to “Aggies across all walks of life.”
“I think we’ve done a very good job in thinking differently,” he said.
Rogers said he organized a country concert for the first week of school and an electronic concert for the Howl. He’s planning on bringing a different genre of music for the end of year bash.
Doug Fiefia holds a highly criticized position – student body president. He’s the driving force behind many of the actions and ideas of the entire USU/SA Executive Council.
Other positions are criticized by different groups – including Athletics vice president, Student Advocate vice president and Programming vice president.
Although he pledged four goals, Fiefia led his campaign based on the idea of student body officers being transparent and working with students.
He promised to “create opportunities for students now and in the future to improve their education by bridging the gap between the students body, ASUSU (now USU/SA) and the administration.”
“It would be interesting to hear what students say,” he said. “Overall, we have bridged that gap and built that relationship, but is it perfect? No.”
Fiefia said his number one accomplishment, myVoice, addresses the platform. The Internet-based suggestion box allows students to voice concerns to student involvement officers.
The idea developed when Fiefia was a frustrated student looking for an answer. He said sometimes even student leaders didn’t know how to respond.
Instead of receiving an automated response for an organization on campus or a department head hearing the same complaint again, an answer to the student’s question comes from an assigned officer.
He said student leaders addressing those concerns means more in a response.
“There’s something different about being in the trenches and finding out those concerns,” Fiefia said.
Fiefia also asks each officer to report at executive council meetings on the following subjects: completion of office hours and TSC info booth hours, which club meeting they attended and the number of myVoice concerns they’d responded to. The goal is 100 percent availability during office hours, one club meeting a month and 10 myVoice responses.
“Having the officers out more amongst the students is the biggest thing for the branding, changing the mentality of ‘We’re here in our offices and you can come visit us when you want to,’ going out and finding the concerns ourselves,” he said.
Similar to Fiefia, Morrison said students need to hold officers accountable.
“There’s responsibility on both ends,” Morrison said. “I think there’s responsibility on students to look into what the student association’s doing. They have a huge budget that comes from student fees. There’s responsibility for us as students to look into it and not just let them do what they’re doing … There’s also responsibility on the student body officers who are trying to fulfill those platforms.”
Student Advocate VP Daryn Frischknecht promised to “represent the student needs and assist individuals when conflicts or concerns arise and represent those concerns to the state Legislature.”
The state Legislature is currently meeting and ends its session in March. Another initiative she is pursuing is a possible tobacco-free campus.
She’s been pursuing the initiative since her time in office but hasn’t measured student interest in the issue yet because a campus-wide survey has not been administered.
As with any other student concern, Morrison said students have the opportunity to give input directly to the officer.
“There are opportunities to tell the said student body officers who are ‘wasting our money,’ or whatever you feel,” he said. “There’s a lot of opportunities instead of being apathetic or negative against it.”
Frischknecht, who “promised to represent the student needs,” agreed with Morrison that parking and student fees are top priority issues for students.
Frischknecht sits on the parking and transportation committee, and they’ve had one meeting so far this year. However, she said Emily Esplin, Executive VP, is in charge of the Student Fee Board.
Morrison describes an equal balance between student investigation and fulfillment by the officer.
“The student association has a lot of money that’s in their budget from student fees, and I absolutely 100 percent – 300 percent – agree that students should know where their student fees are going,” Morrison said. “And I think that’s something that’s really synonymous with student body officers. Nobody’s trying to hide anything.”