Reid Nelson,accounting junior
What is your platform?
It’s one that is realistic, relatable and resilient. I want to be able to represent exactly and realistically what students feel determines a quality education, degree experience at this university. I think that there are a lot of things out there that the administration doesn’t realize what we deem as valuable. They tend to group the entire student body into one group, when in reality each student is unique.
Relatable, I feel that because I’ve lived around all areas of the United States, with all my experiences with different cultures and having to move, I’ve been forced to be able to make friends real quick and being able to relate to people and understand them. I think that would be one of my biggest strengths as president. I will be able to accurately voice student opinions and be able to relate to a broad spectrum of students. ASUA is not always the most diverse, but we need to represent the diversity.
The third thing is resilience. Taking everything head-on with no fear and just doing it is part of just executing and being resilient. The first “no” is not the only answer. You can’t take “no” as your first answer. I will do everything I can until I find the results that I want.
What inspired you to run?
It really all started when I was appointed to the position of student body treasurer. I was here and I was on the executive team for ASUA working hand in hand with them since the beginning of summer. Just working with them every day was such a personal setting. I started to realize exactly what the president does. The first thing that got me going is that I realized this is something I do love, or would love to do, and can do. From what I saw and what I learned, I knew that it was something I could do if I set my mind to it.
If you could change one thing for the undergraduate student body, what would it be?
Specifically for undergraduates, I would say that one of the biggest things is student jobs on campus. I feel that everyone wants a student job on campus. But everyone who works one hates it. One thing I would do would be to improve the benefits of being an on-campus employee.
Chad Travis, business economics junior
What is your platform?
Number one, I would like to see continued progress in the peer adviser program that President (James) Allen and myself and the academic affairs adviser have worked on. It gives advisers a chance to free up some of their time and gives students a chance to have a more in-depth relationship with their adviser.
Number two, I would like to monitor professors requiring students to buy their own textbook that they have authored. It’s going to put the professors through a checklist of criteria to be allowed to use their textbook because they are making the profit off of it.
Number three, I’d like to see resumes implemented into freshman English courses. I believe it starts students off on a great path for career preparation.
Number four would be a seven-and-a-half-week course schedule. What we’ll target with this is Gen Ed courses. It gives students more time and flexibility; it allows the student to pick up increased work hours and to take on more research hours. It also condenses the class so you are in a more focused timeframe.
What inspired you to run?
For the last three years I’ve watched each student body president and I’ve seen the work that they’ve done and I’ve seen the advocacy that they have made for every student. I fully believe in that. I’ve worked for the last two years advocating for students and I’m not done advocating for students.
If you could change one thing for the undergraduate student body, what would it be?
I would work to preserve the quality and prestige of our university. It’s no secret that our university has been slipping in the national rankings. I would like to see us maintained as the flagship institution for Arizona.
*Leo Yamaguchi, physiology and nutritional science senior*
What is your platform?
I have two platforms and they really relate to each other. The first one is affordability. I’m mainly trying to attack it on a state level and university level as well. Visibility leads to credibility which leads to trust.
My hope is that when I talk to the student region or when I talk to the regents on ABOR and the politicians and be like, ‘Hey, I don’t know if this is a great idea because of ‘this.’’ If the visibility and credibility are there then they’ll actually listen to me.
As far as the university level, we are receiving less funding, that’s a given. Is it ever going to go back up? I don’t know. Because we aren’t receiving as much funding, it’s about what we can do creatively to get that funding. So I want to work with the foundation and the alumni association. Also, I would love to streamline the process of education. If kids are here for five years, let’s try to get them the most bang for their buck.
What inspired you to run?
I ran freshman year as a senator and it was mainly because of affordability; I wanted to help students out. I’m lucky that I don’t have to pay loans, but my other friends weren’t. They had to leave the university and I wanted to fight for them because they couldn’t. So that’s why I ran for senate. It’s kind of the same sentiments now as for president. It’s not for me at all, this is not for my resume, why would I stay an extra year paying more tuition when I don’t need to. It’s mainly for everyone else.
If you could change one thing for the undergraduate student body, what would it be?
I guess it goes back to my platform, affordability. Make them feel like someone’s out there helping them. Like HB 2675, it’s going to be $2,000 dollars, you know? To some people it’s not a lot, but to some students, that’s another job. I want to be there, I want to help those students. I want to make them feel like someone is doing something.
Katy Murray, marketing junior
What is your platform?
My platform is broken down into three main tiers that focus on listening to and collaborating with students in order to make sure that their voice is heard on the local, state and national level.
What inspired you to run?
The main reason that I’m really running is because student government and working with students and serving others is what I’m truly passionate about. For me, I would say that at the end of the day, every decision that ASUA makes, either directly or indirectly impacts students. So it’s my goal to make sure that the students’ voice and concerns are heard through ASUA. At the bottom line, our decisions affect students.
If you could change one thing for the undergraduate student body, what would it be?
In my opinion, it’s difficult to look at a lot of long-term changes in a short, one-year term. So my main goal would be to focus on establishing a strong connection with the new university president and administration to really ensure that the administration and students have a strong foundation and a strong network so that when the students or the administration want to work with one another that both sides can be loudly heard.
— Compiled by Stewart McClintic
