Q: Why do you want to be president of ASUPS? It must be a lot of work!
A: It is a lot of work, for sure. I joined ASUPS as a volunteer student on a committee in my first year, and I slowly but surely fell in love with the work. The people that I've been working with have been great.
I also think I can be valuable in furthering one mission that I see ASUPS having, which is the responsibility to advocate for the student body to the Board of Trustees. The president, as the representative of ASUPS, is the person in the student government who’s most responsible for that mission. So I'd really like to do my best to further shared governance at the university. Working with the Board of Trustees, the president of the university, the dean of students — it's super valuable.
It can be a little bit intimidating to walk into meetings with the Board of Trustees and realize these are the real decision-makers. These people hold the university in their hands, really. And so it is certainly kind of intimidating in that respect, but also it's really exciting to have the opportunity to be part of their decision-making process.
Q: What are some of your priorities for the coming year?
A: I'm sure you've seen the May Trail article that came out talking about our voter turnout, which was a decline from last year. So one of the things that I've been saying is that by the end of my term as president, if that trend gets reversed and the next ASUPS election has an increased student turnout, that will make me think that I did a good job as president. And so one of my goals, which is a goal of basically every ASUPS administration, is to increase that student engagement.
I think the way to do that is to better communicate that ASUPS is not just an organization that funds clubs, but actually represents the student body to the president, to the board, and more. And so when students have an issue, a concern, or a major question, my hope is that their first instinct will be, “Let's go talk to ASUPS about this issue and see how they can help us communicate that to the actual university itself.” My goal is to have ASUPS be a very accessible, front-facing resource for students.
Q: Are there any specific improvements you want to bring to the job?
A: I used to be the ASUPS director of clubs. That was my first real role I held within ASUPS and I loved it. And then as the vice president, I oversaw that role. One of the things that I noticed is that ASUPS can probably do a much better job of communicating things like university policies surrounding club leadership and the way that clubs interact with other groups. The university and ASUPS have a lot of very specific rules and policies — this goes back to law — that deal with risk management and keeping the university and ASUPS safe from legal liability and lawsuits. So very important stuff. And so of course we need to be communicating that very clearly to our club leaders and our student leaders.
Q: Is there a specific ASUPS initiative you’d like to call attention to?
A: One of the things that I'd like to call attention to is that ASUPS has a handful of spaces on campus that we oversee and manage. We don't own them. Of course, the university owns them, but we manage them. An example is The Den downstairs, which we renovated last summer.
But technically speaking, ASUPS has a lot of influence that we can exert over Wheelock Student Center. So one of the things that I'm hoping to do is deliver some renovations, and purchase new furniture and technology in Wheelock, as well as in Rausch Auditorium over in McIntyre Hall, which is also managed by ASUPS. Improving the way the university looks is a really great way to draw attention to the possibilities that ASUPS can hold for students. I’d like to show that we really can make physical and noticeable changes happen.
Q: Where can we find you off the clock?
A: I love to spend time outside. I love to bike and hang out with my friends. When it's nice out, I like to go to Owen Beach. I love to go to Antique Row. I love reading, so you might find me at this great bookstore called King's Books that I highly recommend. I love to travel, too. This summer, I went to Vienna to intern with a refugee assistance organization in Austria.
Honestly, I'm not off the clock very much! You can definitely find me in the library doing homework. You can probably also find me in my professors’ office hours chatting about things like summer research. I'm currently trying to get one of my papers published from summer research, and so that's taking up a lot of my time.
