Nate Fisher wanted to be a leader in student government from the time he arrived on the University of Idaho campus.
“The college experience is so much better when you’re involved,” Fisher said.
Fisher has spent the majority of his college career serving in various roles in ASUI. He spent his second year as a senator, third as president, fourth as lobbyist and is spending his fifth and final year as a representative to Faculty Senate.
Though he would eventually become committed to the university, Fisher said he originally wanted to leave Idaho.
“I really fought going to the University of Idaho at first,” Fisher said. “But both my parents are Vandals and they’d been not-so-subtly encouraging me.”
He said it took a tour of campus and hearing his parents’ stories to convince him to attend.
Fisher ran twice for ASUI Senate as a freshman in 2012. He said he lost the first election by three votes, but persisted and won in the spring to serve in the fall of 2013.
He said after he held student government positions in high school, he knew he wanted to be president of the student government once he got to college.
Fisher won his first election and became president of ASUI in 2014.
His presidency got off to a rocky start, as a planning mistake on the part of the previous administration left ASUI with about a $45,000 deficit. He said he felt successful when he eliminated the deficit and put ASUI in the black.
Fisher said as president, he tried to be everywhere. He served on four search committees and tried to attend every event he could.
“When you’re president in ASUI, you’re the point person for all things students,” Fisher said.
Fisher lost his second run for the presidency to Max Cowan in 2015. He said he and Cowan butted heads, but Cowan was open to the idea of him serving as a lobbyist to the state legislature.
Fisher said his greatest accomplishment in his college career occurred during his time as lobbyist when he worked with Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy, R-Genesee, to pass a state-wide medical amnesty law.
The law, which went into effect July 1, grants immunity from minor alcohol possession and consumption charges to a person calling for or receiving medical attention.
Fisher was involved in drafting the bill for more than a year prior to becoming a lobbyist, with Max Cowan and long-term ASUI members Tanner Beymer and Nick Wren, who first presented the idea.
Fisher said every step of the way — every committee meeting, every committee vote and every floor vote — was nerve-wracking and rewarding.
Fisher said he enjoys working to articulate student voices and has continued doing so in his roles as a lobbyist to the state legislature and a representative on Faculty Senate. He said part of the job is always being ready to speak up. He said he thinks faculty and administration genuinely appreciate it and that they take student voices to heart.
“I am always wondering if what I’m thinking is actually representative of the student body,” he said.
As representative to Faculty Senate, he said his only agenda item at the moment is working to get more instructors to post grades to Blackboard. The ASUI Senate passed a resolution last fall requesting more instructors to post grades in a timely manner following a poll of students who overwhelmingly expressed support for the resolution.
Fisher said this goal is to grant students the ability to know where they stand in a class at any given time and to streamline communication between students and their instructors.
Looking forward, Fisher said he wants to stay in Idaho, and probably work in public policy.
He said he is interested in working for Lieutenant Governor Brad Little’s campaign for governor of Idaho and he is currently committed to helping Caroline Nilsson Troy in her reelection campaign in any way possible.
Nishant Mohan
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