As they prepare to lead the student body through the upcoming academic year, the newly elected executive team of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona met on April 15 to share their vision for building trust, increasing visibility and creating meaningful relationships across campus. 

Incoming Student Body President Adriana Grijalva, Executive Vice President-elect Benjamin Huffman and Administrative Vice President-elect Katie Kelliher sat down to discuss their plans, priorities and hopes for their 2025–2026 terms. Grijalva said that their top three priorities for next year are communication and transparency, building a strong Wildcat community and supporting student needs, such as mental health, safety and affordability. 

In terms of communication and transparency, Kelliher referenced her goal to bring students into the behind-the-scenes processes of projects rather than simply display the final product. Additionally, Grijalva expressed wanting to give students more of a voice in forums with the university administration. 

“There’s a lot of decisions that get made at a state level or at an administrative level and students are constantly asking how that impacts our college and how they can change those things,” Huffman said. 

Huffman then raised concerns about the disconnect between the UA administration and students. He explained that the administration is aware of generalized student concerns, but often doesn’t see how severe or widespread those issues are. 

Huffman acknowledged that some progress has been made, but pointed out that it’s happening at a distance — separate from the real experiences of students. To Huffman, ASUA’s role is to bridge that gap by bringing administrative decisions closer to the realities of student life. 

“We have to be just as eager to work with them as they are with us, so we need to find common ground,” Huffman said. 

Grijalva then outlined her goal to expand the marketing efforts of ASUA. She referenced that the executive team’s marketing this past year wasn’t as strong as it could have been. 

Grijalva shared that ASUA cannot properly serve as a student government if the vast number of students are not aware of its existence or purpose. She expressed a plan to have more student engagement through tactics like Instagram Reels. 

The newly elected executive team is also looking to hire someone to hold more of a presence on the ASUA social media pages. Grijalva detailed that they are looking to have a videographer that can cover ASUA-sponsored events. 

Aside from marketing, Grijalva also realized that there are a lot of areas on campus which the student representatives can place more of a focus on. For instance, she wants the new executive team to become more involved in school-sponsored events, clubs, the Greek community and even the housing population on campus. 

Kelliher said the executive team has a plan to build real relationships with communities on campus that have been historically underrepresented. She said it is their goal to invite collaboration and create feedback channels that feel safe, consistent and culturally responsive. 

When asked what a real relationship means, Kelliher said “it just means intentional time, building connections and fostering an environment that is mutually productive.”

Huffman expanded on this. 

“We have to be intentional not just about the final product that reaches students, but also throughout the whole process of collaboration,” Huffman said. 

“Representation also means taking a hard look at the decisions we’re making,” Kelliher said. 

Grijalva echoed her peers’ visions regarding underrepresented communities. 

Grijalva and Huffman grew up in the Tucson area, with Kelliher not far away in Sierra Vista, Arizona. This has helped them all to have a strong sense of belonging and familiarity with the UA. 

“I know what this university can be as somebody who’s been around it a lot longer than I’ve been a student,” Huffman said. 

Huffman also said he hoped to increase ASUA’s outreach with the larger Tucson community. 

Huffman then relayed his role-specific vision. For the 2025-2026 year, Huffman would like to address the varying needs of clubs on campus. While Huffman recognized the importance of funding initiatives for clubs, he said this isn’t the only issue. 

Huffman said he wanted to also focus on retention and membership rates of clubs, largely through marketing initiatives. He referenced the importance of clubs to make sure that each student feels safe and their traditions can stay alive. 

Huffman will also be in charge of guiding the newly elected ASUA senators through their terms.

“There’s no monopoly on good ideas — they can come from anyone and anywhere. And I trust that these senators were elected and appointed to carry the interests of their students or their college to me,” Huffman said. 

Kelliher said she would like to implement a clear reporting system to show where ASUA’s resources are going, who’s benefiting from them, where gaps exist and what is going well for the 2025-2026 school year. Kelliher also communicated her want to establish open office hours, feedback loops and forums with student organizations. 

“Every individual story informs action-taking,” Kelliher said. 

The future executive team said they realized the important qualities in one another. 

“I’m very appreciative of this team. We come into it with different experiences, but we’re still guided by the same principles of trying to work towards something that is bigger than ourselves,” Huffman said. 

Kelliher similarly appreciated Grijalva’s and Huffman’s determination. 

“It is refreshing to work in a team where there is a commitment to follow through,” Kelliher said. 

Huffman also shared the special nature of Grijalva entering her second term as president. He said that it will help the team to enter the next school year on solid footing. 

“I feel like coming in a second year has been a blessing in disguise because for this last exec team, we did not have the best transition, so we are really hoping that this new one can go further,” Grijalva said. 

Grijalva said how special it was to be going into her second term. She is the first female in ASUA history to be elected for two terms, and the second president ever to achieve this accomplishment. 

“We’re in different times than my first term and a lot more difficult times, so it’s great to get a second term, but also a little intimidating,” Grijalva said.

Grijalva explained that when it came to running a second time, it wasn’t an easy decision to make with the amount of hard work and emotional effort it would require. At the end of the day, Grijalva did it because of her connection with her fellow students. 

“I would not change it for the world. The people that I get to work with every single day make it worthwhile,” Grijalva said. 

While the team is proud of ASUA’s previous progress, they are still looking to the future. 

“There is work to be done. There’s progress being made but it would be wrong of us to assume that it’s over,” Kelliher said. 

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