Mai and Hettinga see ASUI presidential campaign as an opportunity to bring different living groups together

Kallyn Mai and Katelyn Hettinga’s Associated Students University of Idaho presidential campaign is dedicated to community, innovation and excellence. Both candidates want to focus on “brighter days for Vandals.”  

Running for ASUI president, Mai, is a third-year student majoring in marketing and human resources with a minor in women’s gender and sexuality studies.

Mai describes her time as a University of Idaho student as second nature. After one ASUI term as a senator, Mai was motivated to continue forward in a different capacity.  

“I loved my position in the senate, and after a while I moved up to the finance committee which was super awesome,” Mai said. “I loved being more involved which was really great, so I always knew I wanted a higher position at UI.” 

Hettinga, Mai’s running mate, is a second-year student studying agriculture economics and political science. Her current experience working as director of legislative affairs for ASUI gave her insight on how she can positively impact civic engagement at the university.

An additional role Hettinga had her freshman year was as a FFA State Officer. This responsibility taught Hettinga that it’s a leader’s priority to create a healthy environment for people to share their views and contribute to change.  

“I’m providing a space that’s safe for those people to share their beliefs with me, share their needs with me and then I can accurately represent that to all these different groups who affect their futures,” Hettinga said.  

Hettinga reached out to Mai after observing her involvement as a senator and her consistent record of speaking out thoughtfully during senate meetings.

Mai viewed the collaboration as an opportunity to bring together different living groups. Hettinga has a background living in the residence halls, while Mai lives in a sorority chapter.  

“We really feel like we can come together and help those two large groups of students on campus come together even more,” Mai said.  

Both candidates reflected on the ways they’ve been able to accomplish change in the community through ASUI. During Mai’s term as senator, the COVID-19 pandemic posed a challenge for the senate to meet and create projects. Mai was able to brainstorm a thank you video for the staff at UI during the hardships. 

“We made one thanking our essential workers at the university,” Mai said. “They were putting in hours on the weekends, every day, to make students’ lives better.” 

Civic engagement is a large portion of Hettinga’s current position as director of legislative affairs. She recently created a publication that worked as a higher education report card. The report card looks at which members of Idaho legislation are supporting higher education.  

“On top of that, I wrote a resolution commending the legislators that did make our honor roll,” Hettinga said. “Everybody that got an 85% or higher just to celebrate the people who are supporting us in higher education.” 

The platform Mai and Hettinga are running on supports three main ideals: community, innovation and excellence. Hettinga focused community on giving a voice to those at the university who are underrepresented.  

“Bringing together all these different campus groups and giving representation, giving a voice to underrepresented students, whether that’s LGBTQA identifying students or students of color who are underrepresented in ASUI,” Hettinga said. “That’s the kind of thing that we can do to improve our community and make sure that those students are getting brighter days.” 

The main point of innovation in their campaign is to continue the availability that HyFlex courses offer. Hettinga advocated for accessibility for students at different campuses.  

“Making sure that we’re offering the access needed to every student so that we can offer a high-quality education from UI to everybody who’s willing to put in the work and get it,” Hettinga said. 

The last aspect of their platform is excellence. Mai and Hettinga both want to make a goal of highlighting all the research, involvement and important ways the has been able to make accomplishments.  

“We really want to highlight throughout our term, if we’re elected, the excellent things going on at our university,” Mai said. “And make people feel proud to be a Vandal.” 

ASUI presidential elections will be held April 19-21.  

Sierra Pesnell can be reached at arg-news@uidaho.edu