Current ASUI Vice President Katie Hettinga and Director of Sustainability Olivia Niemi are campaigning for ASUI president and vice president. Hettinga and Niemi paired up after sharing mutual interests for their platform.
The two are up against Tanner McClain and Madison Fitzgerald who are also running for the presidency.
Empower, enhance and advance are the focuses of their running platform. Niemi said empower means ensuring students feel like they have a voice and share their experiences.
“So really trying to empower individuals to make that change,” Niemi. “Making sure that (representation’s) the forefront of every decision, every event, every plan that we make within ASUI, because at the end of the day, we represent the students and so we don’t know how to represent them without being able to have that communication and have that open door to make sure everyone feels seen and heard and is represented.”
Niemi said this would include tabling and interacting in public areas on campus. Hettinga said there is a legislative advocacy side to this part of their platform as well, with their aim to best enable students to get involved.
“We also want to just provide students with the resources they need to again, to be self-advocates,” Hettinga said. “Like providing scripts or outlines for ‘here’s how to email or call your legislator on the phone….’ and just providing as many resources and opportunities as possible for students to share their voice.”
Hettinga said they hope to enhance activities the university is already doing for students. An issue mentioned was bringing recycling back to campus to increase sustainability.
“We just want to make sure that the University of Idaho is sticking around and here to stay,” Hettinga said. “And that students are taking advantage of all the resources on this campus that they may not even have knowledge of right now.”
Advance, the last part of their campaign, means progressing as a university. Hettinga said they’d like to craft to the individualized experiences on campus.
“We want to support current student organizations, continue with promotion and make sure that we have those avenues that ASUI can support students, but also support the development of new clubs and new student organizations,” Hettinga said. “Just making sure that all those processes are very transparent and accessible.”
The idea of higher education in Idaho causing alleged social justice indoctrination has been prevalent during the past two legislative sessions. Hettinga said the biggest job ASUI has is providing connections between the legislature and the student body.
“I think that working with the Idaho Legislature, the biggest thing is really to build relationships,” Hettinga said. “That can be difficult at times when there are claims and false reports out there that University of Idaho is indoctrinating students. But I think the biggest thing that we can do as ASUI is really provide connections between the legislature and our student body. It’s not our job to speak on every individual student’s experience.”
Hettinga said the best thing they can do is provide students with resources to advocate for themselves, empowering students to share their own stories.
Both Hettinga and Niemi said they are running to positively impact the university.
“I think the most important thing that we can do as student government leaders is really serve just as a mouthpiece for students to share their concerns, share their university experiences and make sure that we are providing a safe and fun and valuable educational experience where everybody can gain something regardless of what their background is, what their identity with their experiences,” Hettinga said.
Niemi wants the change they could make as president and vice president to extend past their time at UI.
“I really want to be able to make that impact and to make a positive change and know that I’m leaving the university better than when I came into it,” Niemi said. “Being able to not only better this campus in this university, but the students that are here right now. It’s so important to make sure that everyone feels that they’re getting the most out of their college experience and that they’re feeling connected to this university and to everyone within it.”
Sierra Pesnell can be reached at [email protected]