Lauren Carlsen, the 2020-21 ASUI president, has been planning around the impacts of COVID-19 on University of Idaho’s student government for months. Several of the platforms she campaigned on remain on the docket for this year’s initiatives, but others have seen greater changes.
ASUI still plans to address the issue of timely grading with Faculty Senate, begin an alumni mentorship program with the Office of Alumni Relations and create a resource app with Information Technology Services. None of these plans have been severely impacted by COVID-19, Carlsen said.
The organization’s plans for civic engagement, however, have seen major changes.
“We are having a polling location on campus this year, which is incredible, and I’m really excited about it,” Carlsen said. “We are making that as safe as we can with COVID-19 regulations and putting on a couple campaigns for pre-voting and absentee ballots, so we don’t have such an influx of people in one place for voting.”
The positions within the President’s Cabinet were affected by COVID-19, too, Carlsen said. ASUI Director of Athletics Trevor Tatko and ASUI Director of Community Relations Connor Dahlquist have taken the brunt of the impact.
Dahlquist oversees events coinciding with community and UI leadership. Social distancing and group guidelines from UI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have altered this year’s plans, Carlsen said.
“Now, I’m attending community meetings with restaurants, (UI) leadership, Moscow leadership about our plan to keep Moscow and (UI) safe…as well as building that positive relationship,” Dahlquist said.
There are no events planned in-depth this semester, Dahlquist said. He’s working with local restaurants and leadership on a community night.
“Once a week, by the Idaho Student Union Building, we’d have these food trucks and tents to promote staying on campus while simultaneously supporting local businesses,” Dahlquist said.
Above all, ASUI’s main initiative is keeping the student experience on campus positive, safe and healthy, ASUI Senate Pro Tempore Aaron Bharucha said.
“We want our UI family to have fun and exciting experiences,” Bharucha said. “We want to ensure they have a life outside the classroom setting, but our main concern is everyone’s safety and health. Riding that line is proving difficult. If everyone follows the rules, then I don’t see next semester being any different than this semester. We must make sure that, even if we see a decline in cases, we don’t jump the gun and stop following guidelines suddenly. We should continue following procedures the university and elected officials have put in place.”
Carter Kolpitcke can be reached at [email protected]
Louis L TOWNSEND
With legitimate protests happening in western states, let's not have it said that destructive actions were encouraged in any way by ASUI's mascot, the ancient Vandal. Vandalism is not a good thing to encourage. We need a name change: VanGoes; Vandrivers; Vanparkers; Vanintimes; Movingvans; Vantagers; IDvancers. So let's have some kind of name change so I can get onto something else during this time of COVID19.