On Wednesday, ASUI President Jacob Lockhart will transition his leadership to Lauren Carlsen. Lockhart led ASUI through the shutdown of the Idaho Student Union Building, a continued University of Idaho budget deficit and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think what stands out to me most was our ability to get what I consider to be a lot of great things done given all of the unprecedented challenges that ordinary administrations hadn’t had to face,” Lockhart said.
Lockhart and ASUI Vice President Faustine Moulton ran on a platform of expanding student resources, improving health and safety, and reimagining student spaces. Lockhart and Moulton improved the Vandal Resource App, worked on adding an online scheduling option for the Counseling and Testing Center, helped bring health services back to campus with the Vandal Health Clinic and renamed the Idaho Commons to the Idaho Student Union Building.
“We wanted to do a lot more, but in the light of (COVID-19), we were limited in our ability to do that, so I have no doubt future administrations are going to be able to build on what we’ve done as well as address their own agenda items,” Lockhart said.
ASUI had to stop meeting face to face and cancel events because of COVID-19, but there has been little change to the operation of the organization otherwise, Lockhart said. ASUI has focused on advocating for the student body on issues including pass/fail classes, social distancing regulations and other health issues in this time.
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The budget deficit did not severely impact Lockhart’s term either. ASUI was still able to allocate funds to student organizations without requesting a raise in student activity fees from the university. This caused a change in ASUI’s budget because of the current tuition freeze, but the budget structure was altered to accommodate the changes.
Lockhart said ASUI’s past credibility and reputation for accomplishing tasks helped his administration’s productivity.
“We made things more consistent,” Lockhart said. “I think we were able to walk into rooms and people understood that we had a consistent frame of thought and they knew where we stood and we were able to get more work done because of that.”
ASUI taught Lockhart how to be an interpersonal figure. Lockhart said his experiences and passion for ASUI have shown him how honest and efficient government can positively impact others, even on a small scale. He said future ASUI leaders should remember to be tactfully fearless, to do their research, ask the right questions and give a voice to the students, especially when others aim to silence those voices.
Lockhart hopes to pursue law after graduating from UI and said his work in ASUI will help him on his path.
“I think that gaining a context from the student government in a more worldly sense is going to help in applying that future to law and understanding where people are coming from, understanding that nothing is as simple as it may seem,” Lockhart said. “Everything has a deeper complexity to it than you might originally think.”
ASUI Vice President Faustine Moulton could not be reached for comment.
Lex Miller can be reached at [email protected]
*This story has been edited to clarify when Carlsen and Garrett officially begin their terms.