Editor’s note: The following goals are direct quotes or paraphrases from the website of each USGD presidential candidate. The ‘how’ explanations are direct quotes or paraphrases from interviews with the candidates.
Alexis Kramer
Current position: Walter Cronkite School senator
Goals:
PitchFinder: “PitchFinder will be a new and improved OrgSync system with up-to-date information on behalf of student organizations for meetings, social media networks, etc. where the first step for students to begin using the system will be to fill out a short five question survey linking them to student organizations that fit their interests.”
How: Kramer wants to work with students in CIS degree programs to develop a replacement for OrgSync. “Funding-wise, you’re already paying so much for OrgSync it’s just about redeveloping and just getting it more user-friendly and like I said, using people that are tech savvy and actually majoring in this and putting the students in the role to decide how to fix it,” Kramer said.
Super Bowl: “The Undergraduate Student Government will work with local and state government, university administration and student organizations in creating an advocacy group along with a university-wide board to establish a presence at Super Bowl XLIX.”
How: “The first step is we want to create a university board here on this campus to get from the Cronkite sports journalism students, the special events management organization, the travel and tourism organizations on this campus to see how we could work cohesively to get kickoff events here at this location to get students engaged with the Super Bowl.”
The goal (What would be a success?): “We want to have a Super Bowl kickoff event here for the students with local organizations and businesses to go tailgating at the Super Bowl. Allocate funding to get a tailgate party there for the students. Get a viewing party here. We want to give students the opportunity to say ‘I was part of the Super Bowl when I was in college.'”
Student involvement: “We want to use the current resources that are available for student organizations to be beneficial instead of being more difficult.”
How: “Meet with organizations bimonthly and say ‘What do you need from us to make this successful?’ And, make it known that at our campus we’re allocating funds every other week to student organizations. This is your money. This can help make your student organization successful.”
Charging stations: To address needs of commuting students, Kramer wants to install charging stations on Taylor Mall for students to charge electronics. Kramer would like to keep these stations eco-friendly by using solar panels to supply the energy.
How: “If we could make that a university issue, I don’t see why we couldn’t accomplish it. … The idea has been brought forward by many campaigns in Tempe right now. If we at Downtown, Tempe, West and Polytechnic say we want charging stations, the university will jump on it immediately, especially because ASU is definitely branching off to be the most sustainable, trying to be eco-friendly and how to get that done.”
#WTFASU: “By launching campaigns such as #WTFASU (What to Fix ASU), this will allow us to hear (student) concerns and find the quickest, feasible solution for problems.”
How and why: “(USGD) Public Relations Director Daiyaan Colbert is the mastermind behind it and he’s working closely with us on it. He definitely wants to make it a project that we can work with, and he sees the potential that as candidates we can make this project happen.”
“Why WTFASU? It’s catchy,” Kramer said. “As a student, right away it clicked to you.”
Read Kramer’s full platform on her website.
Read the Downtown Devil‘s candidate profile on Kramer.
Frank Smith III
Current position: Undergraduate Student Government Downtown president
Goals:
USG scholarship: “We will create a USG scholarship which is open to the entire ASU student body. This scholarship can go toward any educational fees.”
How: Smith said there are currently two avenues he’s pursuing to get this done. In the first, Smith said, “You would go into the bookstore one day, show a flier, and maybe 10 percent of the profits for that day would go into this scholarship and it would also be put into an endowment to eventually make the fund self-sustaining.” The second avenue would create the scholarship fund from the profits from T-shirt sales.
Textbook pledge: “We will also look at ways for students to save money on textbooks. The way will we will do this is by revamping the textbook pledge.”
How: “We want to ask professors to pledge to use textbooks that have an online version. That breaks down the cost because there are more costs associated with a physical book. … Online is a little more affordable.” Smith is currently working on this goal. His next step is going to faculty senate meetings to solicit feedback.
Safety issues: Smith wants to improve the campus safety escort program by having a shuttle that will stop at ASU parking lots downtown to help students reach their cars safely. Smith also wants to make the crosswalk at First and Taylor streets safer by implementing what he calls a “traffic regulator.”
How: Funding for a shuttle on the Downtown campus will come from an expected budget surplus. The Graduate and Professional Student Association will be requesting $66,000 less for the next academic year and that money will be divided between the Downtown, West and Polytechnic campuses, Smith said. The $22,000 for the Downtown campus will cover most of the costs of the shuttle, which Smith said will total about $25,000.
The traffic regulator Smith is pushing for would be a traffic beacon like the one recently installed at Third and Taylor streets. “Administration has been pushing for this for years,” Smith said. “I will do everything I can. I’ll get signatures from the students. I’ll get a petition started and pass it through student government … I’ll meet with city officials. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Policy app: “We will keep the students informed on current policies that are affecting them through a “policy app” which can display information and details on such policies. In addition, this app will explain how the student can take action and voice their opinions regarding such policies. They will be able to look up their legislative district representative in order to know who to voice their opinions to.”
How: “I’ll work on this all summer. I’ll work with the University Technology Office and make sure things get done. … I don’t think there will be a cost associated with this, like with SunDevils Count there wasn’t a cost.” The vice president of policy will be responsible for the policy app’s content, Smith said.
Bus tour: “We will develop a bus tour program which the whole Downtown ASU student body will be invited to participate in. The goal of this bus tour is to introduce the student body to the wonderful local resources which are available to them.”
How: Smith said that since there’s a large number of students that come Downtown, he is looking at alternative options for connecting students to the downtown community. “We’re looking at options for how to make this goal happen. I really want to connect our students with the local community.”
Read Smith’s full platform on his website.
Read the Downtown Devil‘s candidate profile on Smith.
Contact the reporter at alabril@asu.edu.
