ASUM executive candidates state views

Students can vote for next year’s ASUM officers and senate in the general election Wednesday and Thursday via Cyberbear.

Voting will be available from 12:01 a.m. Wednesday until 8 p.m. Thursday.

Running for president and vice president are Trevor Hunter and Siri Smillie; and Allie Harrison and Jake Yerger.

Alex Gosline and Jose Diaz are running for business manager. The Kaimin conducted e-mail interviews with the candidates.

Trevor Hunter, Siri Smillie

If elected, presidential candidate Trevor Hunter and vice president candidate Siri Smillie said they would be focusing their attention on making the students’ voices heard on ASUM, on campus, in Missoula and at the state level.

“The 13,000 students on this campus have the potential of being an incredible source of change in our community and state,” Hunter and Smillie said.

Hunter and Smillie plan on having a greater presence at campus orientations and events. They will encourage students to take advantage of campus opportunities, such as being a student-at-large on committees, serving on the senate, interning with one of ASUM’s many agencies or working at an UM Productions-sponsored concert.

The legislative session in Helena next year is where ASUM can have the most impact on everyday student lives, Hunter and Smillie said. They plan on sending a lobbyist to Helena on behalf of ASUM and to teach UM students how to be effective lobbyists.

“Students make up a very important constituency within Montana, and we will work to get individual legislators to realize this and work towards pro-education policies,” Hunter and Smillie said.

Their first plan of action, if elected, would be to make ASUM a transparent organization. A student government that the students don’t trust can’t be successful, Hunter and Smillie said.

They said the ASUM doors would always be open for students to share their ideas and concerns with ASUM. Hunter and Smillie will take those ideas and concerns and respond by implementing new policies.

Hunter and Smillie will strive to maintain honest and transparent relations with all students, they said.

“ASUM needs to work to accommodate all students’ interests and establish strong working relationships,” Hunter and Smillie said. “We want ASUM to be a vehicle for change on this campus, and that change should be dictated by the entire student population, not just those intimately involved with ASUM.”

Allie Harrison, Jake Yerger

When presidential candidate Allie Harrison isn’t involved in community events, a game of golf or hanging out with her friends, she is thinking of ways to help connect UM students with the opportunities and resources available on campus.

Harrison said student involvement affects student retention, dorm life, transportation, parking, students’ impact on the Legislature and accessibility to financial aid.

Vice president candidate Jake Yerger said student retention is a huge issue for him and Harrison.

To increase student awareness Harrison said she and Yerger could create an interactive events calendar with important information about meetings and events on campus. They could also adopt a voluntary student mentor program, pairing upperclassmen with first and second-year student participants.

“This will help new students better integrate into campus life,” Harrison said.

UM depends on state funding and without students graduating from UM state funding won’t be forthcoming, Yerger said.

They want to help connect the upperclassmen and graduate students with business and community leaders, Harrison said.

The first thing Harrison and Yerger will do if elected is create a schedule of events and policies that will help accomplish their goals for next year. Then they will contact all student group leaders and discuss how they could be more involved in the ASUM resolution process. This will allow ASUM to pass resolutions that are relevant to the students, Harrison said.

Yerger said he and Harrison believe student groups have been underrepresented in the past by ASUM.

“That problem will be the subject of all of our attention,” he said.

“At UM, we’re building tomorrow’s community leaders today,” Harrison said. “We should take this responsibility seriously and give every student the greatest opportunities for success.”

Alex Gosline

Similar to the main character of business manager candidate Alex Gosline’s favorite movie, “October Sky,” he dreams big with everything he does.

If elected he said he would not stop until ASUM has reached 100 percent success to his and everyone else’s standards.

Gosline said the most important issue is that ASUM gets out of its current deficit and ensures each student group has the funds needed to operate.

“It is hard to get groups the proper funding when there isn’t any money to give out,” he said.

He plans on accomplishing this by helping student group find other sources of funding as well as helping them organize their funding requests.

A couple of things Gosline will do right away if elected are: make himself available to students, begin to analyze the ASUM budget and provide as much money for student groups as possible and start working closely with the UM administration to help save students money.

“Next year’s legislative session is important, and we need to make sure our tuition is affordable,” Gosline said.

Jose Diaz

“Ready to Rumble” is business manager candidate Jose Diaz’s favorite movie. He says this rough, tough comedic wrestling film demonstrates how as business manager he will play hardball to raise $25,000 for student groups before fall semester starts.

Diaz’s goal is to fundraise that amount of money and distribute it to student groups. He will do this by asking local businesses to sponsor ASUM events and to allow paid advertising on the ASUM Web site.

“This plan is feasible and will work,” Diaz said.

Diaz said he doesn’t think ASUM funds should have been used to create the sustainability coordinator position this year. He supports sustainability and will work with students, the senate and the UM administration next year to explain the benefits of a sustainable campus. His goal is to convince the administration to take financial responsibility for it.

“That way all of the ASUM activity fee money goes right back where it belongs and that’s toward funding our student groups,” Diaz said.