After their election last semester, Lance Butikofer and Alma Azocar Argurto plan to enhance student opportunities, support and voice in their presidential and vice-presidential roles in the Associated Students of the University of Idaho.
Butikofer is the sitting ASUI president, who is a finance and economics major and served in ASUI in many different capacities, including as the director of Finance in the fall 2025 semester. As ASUI President, Butikofer oversees a cabinet of directors, each with a specialized community or program they represent. He also handles the executive functions of ASUI.
In an Argonaut interview, Butikofer said, “My role is more grassroots level work, and local. Working with student clubs and faculty across the university to make more institutional and structural change.”
Azocar Argurto is an international studies and political science major, who served last year in ASUI as the director of legislative affairs. She also has experience in the Idaho State Congress and has previously served as a page.
When describing her position, Azocar Argurto said, “I am one of your two main connectors between what you think, and what we vocalize to the school and administration.” As ASUI Vice President, Azocar Argurto oversees the legislative side of ASUI, including running ASUI senate, and working closely on external relations between UI and local or state government leaders.
During their election, Butikofer and Azocar Argurto campaigned on increasing student support, voice, and opportunity on campus. To work towards more support for student clubs and organizations, Butikofer stated that over the summer he worked to finalize last year’s club funding process. ASUI is now tracking all club funding internally; this includes a two-step system that double verifies funding, so it can be allocated and reimbursed faster than last year.
Club funding forms will open on Friday, Sept. 4 and can be found on the ASUI Instagram page, as well as an email that will be sent to all student clubs and organizations that are registered in the Engage program.
This new club funding allocation also introduces a five-criterion basis, focusing on high student impact projects. These metrics include the number of students impacted, impact of spending on a single student, localized spending and social campus contribution, a way to measure if the funding is impacting a specific under-represented group on campus.
“It’s a broad umbrella for us to be able to capture how socially responsible our spending is, we always have senate discretion as the final say,” said Butikofer.
Butikofer and Azocar Agurto also want to improve access to resources in ASUI and the campus community, through “institutional structure.” The third point of their campaign, opportunity, is being applied through improving access to experiential learning.
“We get to sit down with Dr. Kahler, Vice Provost of Strategic Enrollment Management, and several other faculty or deans from colleges. Then we look at experiential learning at our institution right now, and how we can work to promote it. As an institution we want to be on the forefront of making sure our students have the best experiences at their hands,” said Butikofer.
“Its kind of heartwarming to see that while we wanted more involvement, we received more involvement over the summer, and in just one week we are already seeing those changes,” said Azocar Agurto.
In improving student voice, both Butikofer and Azocar Agurto stated that they have been on campus talking to orientation groups and talking to them about resources that already exist on campus.
“It may seem more performative to just speak to a crowd, but it is at those spaces where you plant the seed and really see where that effort is going. Hopefully as the year continues, we are committed to making sure that students know about it in a more structural manner,” said Azocar Argurto.
When asked about where they would like ASUI to be by the end of their term,
“I want an impact that exceeds the time capacity that we are in the role. I hope to see all the clubs and student organizations host a variety of different projects, I hope to internally inspire the next set of ASUI members, and inspire people to continue fighting for students,” said Butikofer.
“The difference between Lance and I in this situation, is that I have two years left. After this year, I am still going to be a student, so I’m going to witness a lot of the effects of the decisions that we make, and that’s beautiful,” said Azocar Agurto.
ASUI Senate meets this semester at 7 p.m. in the Crest room on the 4th floor of the ISUB. Meetings are open to the public.
Josie Adjanohoun can be reached at [email protected]