Undergraduate Student Government election season is in full swing, and students on all campuses are on the campaign trail, vying for representation and control in student government.
There are two candidates for USG West president — Noel von Mizener and Sydney Wallace — along with their respective vice presidents of policy and services.
Both tickets spoke with The State Press about their platforms and campaigns. The following is the result of those conversations, edited for clarity and concision. The full audio is available below as well.
Noel von Mizener, Martin Ivanov (VP of Services), Austin Church (VP of Policy):
What are some of the basic tenets of your campaign?
Mizener: "Our ticket stands for safety, sustainability and student outreach. We really believe it's our duty to utilize USG resources to continue to make West campus the safest and most sustainable campus. We also want to make sure we improve faculty-student relations. We know we have really ambitious goals, but if we're elected into office, we know we have a lot to do but we're really excited to accomplish that. A lot of issues we're focusing on stem from student outreach. We have been asking students what they believe the most pressing issues West faces today, and we want to incorporate that into our platform. As USG president, I would not only have the ability to amplify students' voices and needs, I'll also get a really good understanding of how the student body operates."
What makes you qualified to hold this position?
Mizener: "For our ticket, my two vice presidents, Martin Ivanov and Austin Church, they are both political science majors, so this is really what they want to go into. They really want to work with people, they really want to go into politics and they really want to understand how the community works and how to actively get what the community wants into practice. Me, I'm a business communications major, and what I do is I predict trends, and I want to see how I can use my experience in business in helping allocate money to different clubs that are in need of that, and working with the student body. All three of us are very active on campus. I'm a business ambassador and in the Well Devils coalition. Martin does a lot of sports on campus, and we're all active, not only on the West campus, but in Tempe as well. We know how ASU works, and we're here and very active in the community."
What motivated the decision to run, and how did your ticket get assembled?
Mizener: "I'm very passionate about the West campus. When I came to ASU, I originally applied to be on the Tempe campus, and then I transferred here, but it's definitely one of the best decisions I've made. It's such a great community here, and it's given me so much, and I really want to give back to that. For my running mates as well, they're very passionate about the West campus, and they're so active here. We see people in the residence hall talking about thing they want to improve. We want nothing more than to give back to that."
Sydney Wallace, Natasha Snider (VP of Services), Cameron Hlatky-Hall (VP of Policy):
What are some of the basic tenets of your campaign?
Wallace: "We basically just want to actively and positively represent the student body at West. It's also the community. We're pretty close with the community surrounding the area. We would love to include the community and represent the student body as well. Our main goal to include the student body is a centralized event system. At West, it's not that easy to hear about events. We would like to create a calendar with OrgSync and have it inform the residents of when activities are."
What motivated your decision to run, and how did you get your ticket assembled?
Wallace: "All of us are in student government currently. I'm the chief of staff. Natasha Snider, our VPS, is a senator for Barrett, the Honors College here. She works with the services department already. She really just wanted to continue that. Cameron is also a senator. He is the board director of all the committees. He's very involved, and he just loves the idea of giving back to ASU and representing the student body in a positive and accurate light. We all want to be a part of something more next year."
What qualifies you to hold this position?
Wallace: "I think that both Cameron and Natasha — they've lived out of the country — and they've had different experiences. They both bring something to the table that are different. They see things in a way that I may not see things. They bring a different experience. I'm a sophomore and I feel like, after two years at ASU, I have an idea of what I'm doing and what should be done, and what I've liked so far with my experience. We're all different majors. Cameron is a history major, Natasha is a forensics major and I'm a healthcare innovation major. I think that majors are really different, and we all think differently and that's really helpful."
Reach the reporter at Arren.Kimbel-Sannit@asu.edu or follow @akimbelsannit on Twitter.
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter
