Five of the eleven ASUI senatorial candidates as well as both pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates made a last pitch for their platforms at the final open forum March 24 in the Idaho Commons food court.
ASUI senatorial candidates Jordan Kizer, Sam Balas, Haleigh Sims-Douglas, Nina Rydalch and Rory Butcher were in attendance, as well as presidential candidates Rachael Miller alongside her running mate Mckenzie MacDonald, and Austin Karstetter with his running mate Cruz Botello. ASUI Election Coordinators Bailey Brown and Brianna Larson regulated the forum.
Diamond Koloski | Argonaut
ASUI candidate Rory Butcher campaigns in the Idaho Commons Food Court on Thursday.
Brown asked the presidential and vice presidential candidates to describe how they plan to work with administration to improve student space on campus.
Miller said she plans to research which study rooms in the library are reserved by graduate students at what times.
“That way we can see if there is a way we can get more of those rooms available to undergraduate students.” Miller said.
Miller said she and MacDonald have also met with the deans of different colleges on campus and have started looking into putting more furniture into the Administration Building where students can relax and study.
“Collaborating with the administration is going to be a huge thing,” MacDonald said. “We need to know what they feel is feasible for the college they are administering and for students, so making sure we have that collaboration is when we will be able to construct more student spaces.”
Karstetter said he plans to take a different approach by opening a student space that is conducive to interactive activity that can be open for longer hours.
“We do have study space on campus,” Karstetter said. “But we do not have space where students can go for longer hours to just relax, kick back and have fun.”
Botello said providing more interactive spaces for students would also assist University of Idaho President Chuck Staben with his goal of increasing enrollment.
“I think by creating that student space that Austin mentioned, that could be a really big selling point for our university,” Botello said.
Botello also mentioned projects such as the renovation of the first floor of the library will impress prospective students and increase enrollment.
Brown asked the senate candidates what project they would work on first if elected.
Butcher said his first project would be a recycling initiative by increasing the number of recycling bins in classrooms.
“I think it”s a simple way to not only increase the green initiative that we should be moving towards, but also make it easier for students to keep our campus clean and contribute to the environment in our community,” Butcher said.
Rydalch, who is campaigning with her running mate Sim-Douglas, said their first project would also be to add more recycling bins to buildings on campus.
“If we could get more of those to make recycling more accessible that would probably be our first project,” Rydalch said.
Sims-Douglas said she and Rydalch also hope to increase student involvement in Paint the Palouse.
“One thing I think would be really wonderful would be if we extended that out to everyone on campus to make it a larger program,” Sims-Douglas said.
Balas said he would like to see renovation in the scholarship process.
“I don”t think anyone can say they”ve had a complete understanding of the entire scholarship process,” Balas said. “I think it needs to be streamlined. I think it needs to be easier for students to understand what they need to do, what they need to sign up for and what they are eligible for.”
Kizer said the most important projects are the ones brought up by the student body.
“My first project would be opening those doors of communication through the creation of a senate email and hashtag to make social media communication more casual,” Kizer said. “I want to create that communication between students and the senate so we can get to these projects that you have that we want to make happen for you.”
Voting for ASUI President, Vice President and senators will be held Monday through Wednesday.
Jessica Gee can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @JessicaC_Gee