Graduate and Professional Student Association election season is underway and candidates up and down the ballot are engaged in competitive races to secure a seat.
Executive president
There are three candidates running for president of GPSA. Kiju Kim, Florian A. Schneider and Aletta Oswald Dsouza are running for the position.
Kim is graduate student studying electrical engineering and computer engineering. His campaign is focused on pushing ASU to reduce carbon emissions associated with its operations and has already proposed solutions to reducing ASU's climate impact.
"My goal is to make an eco-friendly campus for encouraging graduate students to participate in reducing CO2 emissions, and increasing Zero-Waste on ASU campus," Kim said in an email.
Some of his proposals include providing Uber and Lyft credits to encourage students not to drive to campus as much, adding ASU shuttle stops at grocery stores on weekends and requesting discounts on public transportation, such as the light rail.
Schneider, a graduate student studying sustainability, is the GPSA director of travel. Schneider's campaign is focused on building upon his successes as an assembly member and "challenging ASU to be transparent, sustainable and inclusive."
Schneider has proposed promoting housing opportunities, livable stipends for research assistants and teacher's assistants and making biking and walking around ASU campuses safer.
Oswald Dsouza, a graduate student studying construction management and technology, did not respond to a request for comment.
Vice president of internal affairs
There are four candidates running for the position of vice president of internal affairs. Those running are Jordy Jose Cevallos Chavez, Megan McCaughan, Pooja Prabhakar Jayebhaye and Misturah Odesanya.
Cevallos Chavez, a graduate student studying applied mathematics for the life and social sciences, is focused on making the distribution of travel and research funds to graduate students more equitable and wants to "increase the individual amount for the travel and research grants."
McCaughan, a graduate student studying molecular and cellular biology, is the director of research for GPSA. McCaughan served as a GPSA grant reviewer for two years and the president of the ASU chapter of Global Medical Brigades, a non-profit providing health care to people in the developing world.
"I want to break down financial barriers that graduate students face in both their research and professional development, creating a more equitable experience where all students have the opportunity," McCaughan said.
Prabhakar Jayebhaye, a graduate student studying construction management and technology, and Odesanya, a graduate student studying global management, did not respond to request for comment.
Vice president of external affairs
There are three candidates running for vice president for external affairs. Those running are Quinne Daoust, Jamal Brooks-Hawkins and Lalique Cervantes.
Daoust, a law student, is the director of federal government affairs for GPSA. She's passionate about legislative advocacy and how to make students' voices heard at the institutional, community, state and federal levels.
Brooks-Hawkins, a graduate student studying gender studies, is a GPSA assembly member and assembly president for GPSA. His campaign is focused on advocating for increased representation for online students, finding solutions to student loan issues and affordable housing.
Cervantes, a graduate student studying public policy, is focused on improving student access to mental health care.
"One of the major proposals of my campaign is more access to both preventative and intervention mental health resources for students," Cervantes said. "It is my goal to increase the number of counselors per campus as well as have realistic intervention practices on each campus."
Cervantez also called for more transparency around student fees.
Vice president of professional development
There are three candidates running for vice president of professional development. Those running are Kenton Woods, a graduate student studying family and human development, Suli Adeniye, a graduate student studying computer science, and Kelsey Vourazeris, a graduate student studying business administration.
Woods, the director of innovation fellows in GPSA, is running on a platform of increasing support for students and increasing engagement between students and young professionals in the Phoenix area.
Adeniye and Vourazeris did not respond to request for comment.
Vice president of campus engagement
There are three candidates running for vice president of campus engagement. Those running are Zachary Van Tol, Surya Prakash and Kelly Baur.
Van Tol, a graduate student studying sustainability, is running on a platform of creating a link on Canvas that would connect students directly to their student representative and advertising the the light rail and bus routes.
Baur, a graduate student studying linguistics and applied linguistics, wants to create an events page and wants to support the development of the multicultural centers.
Prakash, graduate student studying construction management and technology, did not respond to request for comment.
GPSA election commissioner
There are two candidates running for the GPSA election commissioner job. Those running are Misturah Odesanya, who is also running for vice president of internal affairs, and Andrea Cordova Cruzatty, a graduate student studying sustainable energy.
Cordova Cruzatty wants to create debates for GPSA candidates.
Elections will be held March 29-30 and results will be announced April 3.
Corrections: This article was updated on March 28 at 6:45 p.m. to include the following changes: A previous version of this article did not include Florian A. Schneider's middle initial. Schneider's position as the GPSA director of travel was misrepresented by an incorrect title. The research assistant title was misrepresented by an incorrect title. Jamal Brooks-Hawkins' position as assembly president for GPSA was not included in a previous version of this article. Quinne Daoust's position as the director of federal government affairs for GPSA was misrepresented by an incorrect title. Kenton Woods' current position in GPSA has been included. Lastly, a previous version of this article incorrectly stated the election dates and announcement date. The article has been updated to reflect the changes. The State Press regrets the errors.
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Mark Habelt covers all-things politics in the ASU and Tempe communities. He can be reached any time at mhabelt@asu.edu. Please refer comments, questions, or story ideas to this email address, as Mark is always interested in discussing local issues.
