The election consists of four candidates running unopposed for leadership roles within Student Association.
Student Association is responsible for allocating funding for organizations, chartering new organizations, advocating for student interests, representing the student body and planning events. There are three branches of the association: executive, judicial and senate. While every student at TU is considered a member of SA, those who are elected to positions are distinguished as SA Leadership.
On Feb. 3, a virtual press conference was held over Zoom to interview the executive candidates and preview their platforms and agendas for SA. The conference was organized by Caroline Williams, Director of Membership for the association.
This semester, there are only four candidates running for executive positions. Justin Yang is running for president, Asa Scott for vice president, Sarah Tran for secretary and Campbell Rogerson for treasurer.
Justin Yang is a biochemistry major on the pre-dental track and the current secretary of SA. The junior described his platform with a focal point on connection and communication between students, SA and administration to “enjoy and value the things that come out of Student Association on a deeper level.” Yang said that a prominent issue he wants to address is the disconnect between the student body and SA. He stated, “TU is definitely a place where the social aspect from the university can definitely grow. One of my biggest plans to work on that is potentially creating… [an] executive cabinet position.” Yang plans on “creating a Director of Public Relations” who’s role would be “to interact with students on a personal level.” He added that “A Director of Public Relations… could really work closely with the Director of Organizational Outreach to reach presidents of organizations and meet with them and really emphasize the different things that can be done through SA or through their own [organizations] with the help of SA.”
Asa Scott is a political science and chemistry major on the pre-law track, currently serving as the Government Operations Committee chair in SA. Scott expressed interest in a “far more diverse representation in Student Association” as part of his platform. The junior acknowledged that SA represents many groups and communities on campus currently, but he would “still like to see that grow… especially with more non-greek members because… that is a decent concentration of Student Association membership.” Scott said he has been a senator for three years and that one of the vice president’s main responsibilities is leading the senate. He said, “I want to see better student to senator representation” and ensure that “we have actual issues… coming from the students to be discussed on the Senate floor.” Scott also wants to work towards “a far more student facing SA leadership” and “more cohesion” within their ranks.
Sarah Tran is a clinical psychology major that is minoring in speech pathology and gender studies, currently serving as a clerk in the judicial branch. As she is a freshman who joined SA last semester, she recognized that her “experience has not been quite as extensive” as the other candidates, but that her position in judicial has trained her to have a “very observant ear.” Tran said that she plans to “improve intra-SA communication… to make a more unified team” as well as “promote more communication between SA and the student body itself” as she described her platform. As secretary, Tran said her core responsibilities would be “keeping minutes and staying on track of all the archives for SA and posting those minutes online and making sure that everyone keeps attendance with meetings.”
Campbell Rogerson is an accounting major with a minor in sports management and the current Director of Marketing for SA. As part of his platform, Rogerson said he wanted to focus on “simplify[ing] the OSP [Organizational Strategic Plan] process a little bit more because I know it can be… a hectic time and rules change all the time.” He also expressed interest in being “fiscally responsible with the funds that are given to us.” Rogerson stated that “for the past several years… everyone [has been] a good financial steward of the money, and I would hope to continue that trend.” The junior said he plans on “making the Shared Services Center work a little bit better… I just know this year in specific with Shared Services, there have been some hiccups” with communication of rules.
Another goal of the executive candidates is to host a Springfest that is “a lot more interactive for students, whether it’s… more events or smaller events that more students can attend,” according to Yang. He said, “One thing that I really would like to do… [is] actually have students vote for the artist. I don’t know if that’s super super viable, but I would love to work with the cabinet to get a little bit more of an idea rather than voting for just the genre of music that they like.” Scott added that SA has “some very experienced senior cabinet members that are taking the lead on Springfest and they’re super excited for it.”
When the candidates were asked about making SA information more accessible to the student body, Scott took the lead. “The senators are not communicating with their constituents… I think a big reason why that is is it’s a consequence of the pandemic… I think it’s very important that we have students, or, senators that are actually going out and reestablishing that connection with people that live in whatever residence hall they represent or the College of Business or ENS [College of Engineering and Natural Sciences], et cetera and are making those connections appear again,” Scott stated. Rogerson elaborated on the Student Association Hub that was created over break to “help make these resources a lot more easily accessible to students.”
When Yang was asked how he planned to respond to issues affecting students such as the catalytic converter thefts that have been occurring on campus, he responded with, “as a Student Association, we’re in charge of kind of rallying the students and really hearing y’all’s voices and conveying that to the administration.” He added, “I personally will not be patrolling the parking lots making sure no one is nabbing catalytic converters but I will do my best to encourage students and the student body to relay and convey that message to the administration… I personally would love to do something about that in terms of communication with the administration and actually getting something to happen, but I can’t promise anything tangible from Student Association.”
The executive election will begin Feb. 16 at 9 a.m. and end on Feb. 17 at 9 p.m. Students can vote on Harvey by pulling up organizations then Student Association, where a vote option will be presented. Once the election is open, a ballot will be available for students to submit their v
