2018 ASUA Primary Election Candidate Town Hall

Ahead of the 2018 Associated Students of the University of Arizona (ASUA) Primary Election, representatives of the UA Cultural/Resource Centers asked questions of candidates for president, executive vice president and administrative vice president during a Feb. 15 Town Hall event.

Primary voting is online at http://elections.asua.arizona.edu beginning at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20 and concluding at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 21.

———-
TOWN HALL VIDEO RUNDOWN:

CANDIDATE INTRODUCTIONS: [0:00 – 15:35]

QUESTION 1: [15:45 – 23:22]
What’s your experience working with underrepresented individual students and how does your platform support these individuals?

QUESTION 2: [23:32 – 30:04]
How can ASUA advocate for the acknowledgement of the ancestral lands of the Tohono O’odham people in which the UofA currently resides upon?

QUESTION 3: [30:08 – 37:09]
What will you do to bring awareness to the administration about their failure to retain students who identify as queer or trans people of color? …

QUESTION 4: [30:10 – 43:51]
How are you specifically going to support sexual assault prevention year round, rather than just during the month of April? [30:10 – 43:51]

QUESTION 5: [43:53 – 50:41]
What does community collaboration with the [cultural/resource] centers look like for you, so it’s not just ASUA putting work and labor on marginalized students to advance ASUA members’ agendas?

QUESTION 6: [50:44 – 57:27]
…You’ve heard about the living learning communities, wherein members of a community or a culture are able to be residents together, and so it makes transitions easier for new students or those living in the dorms. What is your opinion on that, and how would you implement such?

QUESTION 7: [57:30 – 1:04:41]
We talk a lot about cultural competency, and oftentimes into conversation brings SafeZone, which is under the LGBTQ Resource Center. But a lot of that weight goes to SafeZone – a program that is not really well funded and not well taken care of by our University. Aside from SafeZone training, which is often what people come to as a good way to build cultural competency, what are other ways that you intend on making ASUA a more inclusive and welcoming space for LGBTQ+ students

QUESTION 8: [1:04:44 – 1:11:52]
DACA and undocumented students have been fighting a lot for our needs recently, such as making the university take a stand of enforcement of our communities, which includes border patrol being on campus and especially fighting for financial assistance for the last two years. My question for the candidates: What concrete, long term action steps – beyond raising awareness – would you take as ASUA leaders to make more financial access to DACA and undocumented students on this campus and to take a stand with us?

CLOSING REMARKS: [1:11:53 – 1:13:07]
Delivered by ASUA Elections Commissioner Marlon Freeman