The University of Idaho Argonaut

Senior Ian Harpole said he’s made quite the name for himself as a karaoke singer.
“I like to think I’m a good singer but I think it’s more of a stage presence,” Harpole said, laughing. “My favorite song to sing? Stevie Wonder ‘I Just Called to Say I Love You.’”
While Harpole may be known for his singing abilities, he may also be known for his work as an ASUI senator. He spent nearly four years at the University of Idaho before he decided to get involved with ASUI.
“I figured I knew the campus really well after four years,” Harpole said. “I thought I could get a lot of stuff done through all of my experience here.”

Harpole held leadership positions in his fraternity and the Interfraterity Council previous to his time as a senator but said he wanted to be involved with the university as a whole.
He is currently working to create a student voice on the Moscow City Council. Harpole has already met with council members and said he plans to meet with the mayor to further discuss his plans for a student liaison on the council.
“Ideally I’d like a to establish a nonvoting student member on the City Council,” Harpole said.

In order for someone to earn a vote on the council, they have to be formally elected to the position, he said.
“Students make up enough of the population in Moscow to deserve a say in things that are going on,” Harpole said. “I think they should have a say and not just be seen as a transient group of people.”
Aside from his determination to blend students and the City Council, Harpole said he enjoys helping out with anything else going on with ASUI.

Harpole plans to graduate next fall with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science. However, things could change if he decides to turn his political science minor into a major.
“My original plan when I started school was to go to law school,” Harpole said. “That’s the reason for political science. I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer. My grandpa was a lawyer.”

When he’s not busy with school and ASUI, Harpole said he enjoys snowboarding at Schweitzer. He started the sport in seventh or eighth grade and he almost had to give it up when he blew his ACL and meniscus in high school.
He was snowboarding in the woods when the front edge of his board caught on a tree branch but his body continue to move down the hill, he said.
“My knee did a big pop,” Harpole said. “I didn’t want to wait for the snow patrol so I snow plowed down the rest of the mountain in excruciating pain.”
Harpole said his ACL and meniscus were only partially torn so he was encouraged to stay off of his knee until they healed. But they didn’t heal properly and Harpole kept tearing them repeatedly.

“I think I tore them like three or four times doing this, that and the next thing,” he said. “I finally had to have surgery the summer going into my sophomore year of college. I had to spend the summer on my parents’ couch.”
Despite the painful surgery, Harpole said he is glad he did it because he no longer lives in fear of tearing them again and is free to participate in intramurals.

“I knew if I ever wanted to do any active sports I had to have it operated on,” Harpole said.
Tearing his ACL and meniscus is typical of Harpole, he said. When he was young, his friends and family referred to him as the “walking catastrophe” because he always had casts on his arms and legs, he said.
“I have a knack for getting myself into stupid situations,” Harpole said. “I do things like lock my keys in the car when I’m on vacation at the worst possible time or I lose my wallet. My friends know me to do some pretty stupid things.”
But being a part of ASUI is not one of those things, he said.

Harpole is happy to have another semester left in office and is excited to see who will be joining him on ASUI next fall. Harpole said he’d like to help the new senators transition well and hopes the Senate and ASUI will continue to run as smoothly as they are now.
“Ever since our Senate retreat we’ve been a pretty tight group,” Harpole said. “Our views aren’t always on the same page but we can joke and kid around and that helps us get stuff done.”

Harpole said his advice for future senators would be to simply listen to what is going on around them.
“Pay attention to what you’re hearing on campus,” Harpole said. “Because word of mouth is usually how things start. That’s when you find out what students really find important.”