To the students that make USU’s election week possible
It is going to be a busy election week for Utah State University’s Election Committee: the group of students are in charge of 40 candidates running for 17 different positions during the 2016 elections. There will also be some new events added to the traditional events throughout elections week.
Elections week is made possible by the Election Committee, which is made up of 21 individuals that have volunteered their time and efforts into making sure candidates and students have the best election week possible. This includes giving candidates the right amount of time to get their platforms across and giving students the opportunity to get to know the candidates who will become their newest student leaders.
“I have been very impressed with the motivation and dedication of this year’s election committee into making sure the 2016 elections run smoothly,” said Sawyer Hemsley, USUSA’s Programming Vice President and co-chair on the Election Committee. “These students give us their time for free, and put in a lot of hard work to make it possible for students to pick the best candidates possible.”
There are two co-chairs that manage the committee: Hemsley and Madison Maners.
“Before, the Public Relations and Marketing Director for the USU Student Association would manage the committee on their own,” said Maners, who is also the PR and Marketing Director for USUSA. “However a legislation was passed last year that required both the PR and Marketing Director to co-chair the committee with the Programming VP.”
Each candidate is assigned a facilitator in the committee and these facilitators help candidates by answering any questions they might have, and making sure the candidates are well informed on all the bylaws.
“I definitely enjoy being involved in the election process, it helps me get to know on a personal level the students that will be elected into office,” said Jonathan Conger, the administrative assistant for the elections committee and one of the seven facilitators. “Our mission is to give students a quality campus experience.”
The liaisons in the committee put on the events and hold the dates throughout elections week.
“The two new events during this week’s elections were brought up by the liaisons, and they are doing everything to make sure both the old and new events are planned and carried out without a hitch,” Hemsley said.
The two new events are lunches that will be held on Monday and Thursday. Monday’s lunch will be held in the Taggart Student Center’s Hub at noon and it will be a “get to know your candidates” lunch with a Minute-to-Win-It game that the candidates will participate in. The candidates will be given time to talk to students after the game. The lunch on Thursday will also be held in the Hub at noon, and this will be with the final candidates, who will be playing a game of Fear Factor.
There will also be speeches, debates and campaigns going on throughout the week.
Monday and Tuesday are dedicated to the primaries, and Wednesday and Thursday are dedicated to finals, where the two highest voted candidates of each position will give their final debates and campaigns.
The facilitators for the 2016 elections are: Jordan Floyd, Kent Carpenter, Sarah Winder, Marissa Neeley, Lauren Morrill, Jonathan Conger and Nick Clason.
The Greek Liaison is Ashley Lindberg, the Resident Hall Liaison is Ryan Wallentine and the Statesman/Aggie Radio Liaison is Shanie Howard. The MST Liaisons are Ashley Raymond, Jallen Tollefson and Romney Allen.
Advisors on the committee are: Linda Zimmerman, Nate Laursen, Stefanie Brooksby and Kevin Webb.
— jillian.mccarthy@aggiemail.usu.edu