After winning the 2022 ASUI elections Tanner McClain and Madison Fitzgerald’s work has already begun.
McClain will stay in Moscow for the start of the summer to start working on the upcoming fall semester’s events. McClain said he’s also excited for the future of transportation on the University of Idaho’s campus. Dash EV, a mode of transportation using a small car-like vehicle, will be arriving on campus in connection with the pairs’ focus on improving transportation.
“I’m super excited about growing Vandal Uber and helping with Dash EV, which is coming on to campus this summer,” McClain said. “I think that’s going to give a lot of people access to other forms of public transportation.”
As a way to promote Vandal pride, they hope to host a carnival at the beginning of the academic year. McClain said in addition to public transportation and preparing for the fall semester, he’ll be working on approving this event.
“I know that this summer while I’m up here, I’ll be discussing with the dean (of students) and other administration officials and faculty to see how we can go through this,” McClain said.
McClain and Fitzgerald hope these events provide an opportunity to unite campus.
“(We want to) get people excited to be, not only on campus, but be involved,” Fitzgerald said. “I think the thing that a lot of people know that Tanner and I were pushing throughout our campaign is uniting different living groups on campus and having one big Vandal family.”
Both said the vision for the start-of-the-year carnival is to supply food vendors, games and mingling for students.
Since winning elections, cabinet applications have been submitted and are under review by the pair. McClain said they’re looking for people to be involved and work hard for ASUI.
“(We hope) that they’re engaged, willing to learn and be connected with senators and other cabinet members,” Fitzgerald said. “We really want a team that is super cohesive and can rely on one another and could walk into senate or pre-session and have a conversation with anyone.”
Vice President Fitzgerald will serve as ASUI senate president. She’s looking forward to improving her parliamentary procedure.
“I think it’ll just be a good opportunity for me to work on my skills and be more engaged with all the senators and be able to write different resolutions with all of them,” Fitzgerald said.
For change inside ASUI, McClain said he’d like to make training for ASUI members interactive and off-campus.
“Bring us all together and so we can have fun,” McClain said. “As president I want to make ASUI a fun space for people who are in it. I want them to be excited to comment and I want them to be excited to work on projects. I want us to have a lot of work done but I want to have fun with it as well.”
The pair said they both feel confident that they’ll keep each other accountable for their goals.
Both are excited by the results of their successful campaign. Fitzgerald said they are both humbled to have run against Katie Hettinga and Olivia Niemi. They hope Hettinga and Niemi continue to contribute to campus.
Sierra Pesnell can be reached at [email protected]