Candidates for ASUI

Courtesy | Jesse Smith Jesse Smith (left) and Malachi Dunn (right) pose in front of the UI Administration Building.

Jesse Smith and Malachi Dunn

Jesse Smith and Malachi Dunn are running on a platform of loyalty, leadership, lobbying and liberty. Smith said he wants to hold elections for the directors of philanthropy, finance, athletics, diversity, student spaces, health, wellness and violence and the two faculty senate representatives, instead of those positions being appointed by the ASUI president. Smith said he wanted to make these positions elected because he wants to make the president’s power less concentrated.

Smith said he also wants to eliminate pay for ASUI senators. He said these funds would be better for building student programs.

One program Smith said he would like to implement would be called “letters to the presidents” which he said would give students more say in the activities of the Senate.

Smith said he wants to send out a comprehensive budget to all students, so they are aware of where student fees are going.

In regard to lobbying, Smith said he wants to lobby the state government to legalize medical marijuana and lower tuition. He said he wants to push education reform, specifically curriculums focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Under the premise of liberty, Smith said he believes smoking rules on campus should be repealed.

Smith said he also wants to partner with the Residence Hall Association to remove the rule that those 21 years of age and older cannot consume alcohol in their dorm room.

Jesse Watson (left) and James Howard (right) are one of four ASUI presidential campaigns.

Jesse Watson and James Howard

Jesse Watson and James Howard are running on a platform of student voice, improving student life, a united campus and fiscal responsibility. In regard to student voice, Watson said he and Howard want ASUI to do more lobbying at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise. Watson said they also have plans to increase student representation on committees.

“Student voice is the most important voice on campus,” Watson said.

To improve student life, Watson said his administration would push for more faculty to use BbLearn on behalf of students. Watson said getting more faculty on board with using BbLearn for grades will help students study for midterms or finals because students often want to know their GPA going into important exams.

Centralized advising is another objective under improving student life, Watson said. He said they wanted to bring all advising to the same level, no matter what college a student is in.

This focus on advising also ties in with the candidates’ next objective. Watson said his campaign supports Vandal Star, a program designed to keep students from falling through the cracks and keep them enrolled, Watson said.

To improve student spaces, Watson said they wanted to install nap pods around campus for students who need a break throughout the day.

In regard to campus safety, Watson said the pair wants to place more lights in the Kibbie Dome parking lot and install school-wide active shooter training.

Howard said fiscal responsibility was the campaign’s first priority and Watson said the Senate should cut down on wasteful spending.

Watson referenced a bill that the Senate passed last semester which allocated money to send two senators to Houston, Texas, for a student government conference.

Courtesy | Carlos Vazquez Carlos Vazquez (left) and Nicole Skinner (right) pose in the IRIC.

Nicole Skinner and Carlos Vazquez

Nicole Skinner and Carlos Vazquez are running for ASUI president and vice president on the platform of new possibilities. Both Skinner and Vazquez are sophomores and current ASUI senators.

The Skinner-Vazquez platform has three major areas according to the candidates, which are student voices, student resources and student community.

Under student voices, Skinner said they want to improve communication with the Moscow City Council and develop both a landlord rating system as well as a legislator report card.

“We want to implement a landlord rating system, so students aren’t left in the dark when trying to find an apartment. Moving off campus is a process most students will have to deal with at some point in their college career,” Skinner said.

Skinner said encouraging professors to use open source textbooks is another idea they hope to implement as ASUI president and vice president. Skinner said she hopes to promote affordability on the University of Idaho campus.

Skinner said another part of increasing affordability is including the price of blue books and Scantron sheets in the course fees students pay. The final policy point is student community. Skinner said they want to host an event for first generation college students and plan a UI founding day.

“We think UI should have a real student union building that centralizes resources, student-based offices and a space where students can destress and have fun after class,” Skinner said.

Courtesy | Sean Collins
Sean Collins (left) and Austin O’Neill (right) want to make college more affordable.

Austin O’Neill and Sean Collins

Austin O’Neill is running for president while living in a different country, but said that doesn’t faze his running mate, Sean Collins.

Collins said making school affordable is a high priority. To accomplish this, the pair wants to combine all course and lab fees into one set price for all students. Collins said by making one fee for all students, it would help lower the cost of some majors and allow students to not be limited in choices.

Collins said they also wanted to lock the tuition cost at the price it was when the student entered school during the four years the student attends.

O’Neill and Collins also want to advocate for open source textbooks and remove the use of blue books entirely.

The last policy point O’Neill and Collins have is to make ASUI approachable and accountable.

To do this, Collins said the pair wants to create a way to contact the ASUI president so students can raise concerns directly. Collins said they also want to plan monthly meetings between student organizations and the ASUI president, so they can discuss student experiences.

Collins said they also want to create commissions to ensure ASUI is accountable to the students on the promises they ran on.

The last platform Collins runs on is to create a greater campus community by ensuring student organizations have the support they need. Collins said they want to create an ASUI congress which will represent undergraduate students by college.

The last point under the community platform is to bring together the leadership of ASUI, and the other student leadership organizations on campus together to discuss and solve campus issues together.

A previous version of this article misspelled Carlos Vazquez’s name.

Kali Nelson can be reached at [email protected]