Just over a dozen students gathered to hear from ASUI hopefuls at the last Candidate forum in the Wallace Residence Center basement Thursday night.
ASUI presidential candidates Clayton King and Jacob Lockhart were present, as well as King’s running mate Cash Calhoun. Senate Candidates Reilly Dahlquist, Juan Carols Gastelum, Logan Heflin, Jeffery LaSorella, Mary Alice Taylor and Colby West were also at the forum.
The candidates took a question from forum moderators with The Argonaut and from fourth-year student Jenna Shafer, who serves as the Residence Hall Association’s director of communication. Questions focused on how to bridge the gap between RHA and Greek students.
“Socials have been a big answer for how to solve the disconnect between Greek life and residence hall life, and my question for you is when that doesn’t work, what is your plan?,” Shafer said.
LaSorella said he believes we have to encourage Greek students to reach out and meet in the middle.
“If socials aren’t the answer and socializing isn’t the answer, I’m not sure what would be,” LaSorella said. “It’s this face to face interaction where we get to know each other and build relationships. How am I supposed to get to know you other than to talk to you?
Jacob Lockhart
Dahlquist said he would like to implement academic groups based around student interests and hobbies to bring together students from both groups. From there, he wants to utilize activities such as Screen on the Green to bring the communities together
West said she believes that it comes down to willingness to participate and reaching out to students to see how they would like to participate would be a good place to start.
Taylor said she thinks small group events are the best way to start, though they may need to be mandated at first, something she knows can happen in terms of Greek houses.
“Getting people to go and see how cool people are in the residence halls and that you can actually be friends with people outside your living group,” she said.
Lockhart said that bringing the students together is a cornerstone of his campaign.
“I’m going to be honest — I’m not going to stand up here and say that I can wave a magic wand and all of our issues are going to be fixed,” Lockhart said. “But what I can promise is I’m going to do my best every single day to change a culture to where vandals first is the only thing that matters.”
Gastelum said as a student that has lived in both the residence halls and as a part of Greek life, he understands that the communities do their own thing, But he said reaching out to each student individually can create a foundation that is not forced between the two communities.
Heflin said meeting Greek students is not the problem for residence hall students. Rather, Heflin said it is the leverage that Greek based events and the Greek community has on campus.
“It starts with the governing body, ASUI,” Heflin said. “And making sure there are Senators that come from the residence hall community that advocate for the needs of residence hall students. It has to start with equal representation.”
Calhoun said he thinks the problem lies in stigmas surrounding both communities, and he believes that the stigmas need to be broken down so that the communities can interact together. He said personal interactions are a good place to start.
King said he doesn’t know all the answers to the problem, and as a Greek student there is no way to know all the problems that students in the Residence Halls face. He said talking to every student to find out what their problems are is important.
“I grew up on a farm in a small town, and if something doesn’t work you fix it — no matter how long it takes you fix it,” King said. “Granted my term is only one year, but if I can get that ball rolling to the point where it can’t stop, I have accomplished something.”
All enrolled undergraduate students at the University of Idaho can cast their vote from 7 a.m. Monday to 5 p.m. Wednesday. A link to the voting form will be emailed to students’ VandalMail accounts.
Ellamae Burnell can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EllamaeBurnell