ASUI President Nicole Skinner is taking more than her degree with her after May 11, as she has spent the last year serving the student body.
The graduating senior, studying political science and economics with a minor in psychology, isn’t sure what comes after graduation, but she knows she wants to use public policy to improve people’s lives.
Skinner’s favorite accomplishment for ASUI within the last year was the campus-wide party to the polls, where 375 students were bussed from the Idaho Commons to the Latah County Fairgrounds to cast their vote in November.
“I think we were able to shift the culture around voting on our campus,” Skinner said. “And make county leadership take students more seriously in elections and we created the most fun events I’ve ever been to.”
The agreement to turn the Idaho Commons into the Idaho Student Union Building also sits high on Skinner’s list of accomplishments. She said she thinks it will leave impactful change on the university.
“The fact that we’ve established shared governance over the building for the future, I think, is a great step for making this university even more student centered,” said Skinner.
A board, which Skinner is excited to see come to fruition, will be established under ASUI, with graduate and law student association members, non-voting professors and ASUI representatives holding seats to make recommendation for what tenants should be in the building, policies and scheduling practices.
Skinner said she thinks incoming ASUI President Jacob Lockhart has great ideas about making changes to student spaces in the building.
She also is excited for Lockhart and Vice President elect Faustine Moulton to work with incoming University of Idaho President Scott Green.
“I think there’s a lot of potential there because he’s going to come in with fresh ideas and a new perspective we haven’t had before,” said Skinner.
Skinner said she felt that a lot of her biggest accomplishments for the year came from genuine friendships she established with people she worked with — which she said made her job more enjoyable. She said she had encouraged Lockhart and Moulton to build relationships with faculty and staff members outside of meetings and projects.
Skinner was able to serve on the Presidential Screening Committee, and she enjoyed seeing a behind the scenes perspective and learning about university processes.
Skinner said she will continue to be available for questions regarding the Idaho Higher Education Legislator Report Card, a project that she was passionate in pushing out, along with other student body leaders across the state.
“We are looking at how we can make the report card even more impactful in upcoming years,” Skinner said. “So there a lot of things we are considering changing right now, but I am excited for how it will look this next year. “
Skinner said that being in student government, she didn’t have a vote in many decisions which are made.
“I’m really more of a lobbyist for our undergraduate students,” Skinner said. “I’ve had to learn how to leverage power that I don’t directly possess. So, it’s a great skill set I’ve been able to develop but it definitely made it difficult at times to get certain projects done when we didn’t have voting power in a matter.”
Despite this, ASUI was able to accomplish multiple initiatives, including the implementation of a bike share program, in coaltion with the city of Moscow and the university, in addition to providing free menstrual products in campus restrooms.
Skinner said she hopes that the student body knows that ASUI is here to advocate for each and every student on campus no matter what it entails.
“Whether it be legislation you want lobbied for at the state level or needing better school supplies in your classroom or anything like that, we want to make each student experience here better, and we’re always here to listen,” Skinner said.
Ellamae Burnell can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EllamaeBurnell