The ASUI election has concluded with students electing five new ASUI senators to begin next semester.
Five candidates participated in the race for the five open senator positions: Owen Crowley, Theodore Ertel, James Hiari, Martha Smith and Nathaniel Trachimowicz. The duties of the ASUI Senators include representing their campus living groups, informing the campus population about important events and using their understanding of their designated constituents to forward legislation that advances the interests of UI’s undergraduate class.
Crowley’s priority heading into the election was finding solutions for the university’s retention performance, a focus that he is looking to address by shifting resources towards creating an inclusive environment for first-generation students.
Ertel, who focused on the continued issue of the COVID-19 pandemic, centered his campaigning around ensuring that student input continues to be at the forefront of legislative action related to how the pandemic is managed on campus.
With issues such as campus parking being an area of concern for students at UI, Hiari and Trachimowicz focused their respective campaigns around addressing the foremost transportation issues on campus.
Smith is a freshman, realtor and current adjutant for ASUI. Making the shift to a senator position for the upcoming academic year, Smith campaigned on bringing a greater degree of transparency to the ASUI platform.
Elections in the spring will have additional seats open to voting including more senator positions, as well as the president and vice president positions.
Royce McCandless can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @roycemccandless