What’s up, Vandals! My name is Martha Smith and I am this year’s ASUI President. We’ve had requests to make ASUI more transparent in the past, so here I am! Every addition of the Argonaut this year, I’m writing a quick article on what ASUI has been up to with your student fee dollars. ASUI was busy in October, driving up student engagement and putting on events. Here’s what we spent: $146.86 on Homecoming merch to hand out to students, $48.73 on a Vandal gear giveaway, $200 to support the soil stewards event “Fall on the Farm,” $100 on an ASUI meet and greet where we handed out donuts and coffee, $75 on tabling items for Hispanic Heritage month and an additional $300 on various Homecoming decorations for our office and float. As a group, we’ve been fortunate to have outside support in donations for our events this year, enabling us to host events like the watch party we had for the football game in the Lower 40 on Oct. 12.
Outside of just spending money, ASUI members have been diligent in supporting students in a variety of ways. Udit Sipani, Director of Student Spaces, Upal Kundu, Director of Student Resources, and Senator Harrison Brown have created a financial literacy guide for students that will be handed out to international students and during a tabling event in the coming month, among other projects, this group is tackling. In addition to that, we finished our voter regression efforts and have shifted our focus to Election Day, where we will be providing over $500 of pizza, all from a grant ASUI received from Every Vote Counts. As always, Lezly Macias has done a killer job at making this all happen. We will also be volunteering from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Rec Center to ensure students have the correct information regarding voting and providing golf cart rides to and from the polls. ASUI will also be volunteering at the Veterans Day event the University of Idaho puts on, which we always look forward to.
On October 25th, ASUI and the League of Women Voters will be hosting a candidate forum for local elections in the Pitman Center. Our Director of Legislative Affairs, Bryant Sitts, helped to make this a reality and Rebekah Boyd, Director of Public Relations, is helping us get the word out.
This month, we also had a two-day session with the ACLU that provided voter resources, rights surrounding freedom of speech, and what rights students have regarding protesting. Josie Gaturutura, Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Ma. Lezly Macias, Director of Community and Civic Engagement, helped make this happen for us.
This isn’t everything ASUI is working on, and we want your feedback! Always feel free to swing into our office in the ISUB, come to a Senate meeting (Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the Clearwater Room), or reach out to me personally via email at [email protected] to tell us what you think or give us ideas on what needs to be fixed here on campus.