Logan Ramsey
News Editor
After weeks of campaigning, the 2021 Associated Students of Idaho State University (ASISU) election came to a close. Voting ended on March 19 and the new student officer’s terms will begin at the end of the spring semester.
On the executive ticket, Zane Webb and Ailie Maclean of the Amplify Party won, and will take office as President and Vice President of ASISU. According to their platform, they’re committed to ACT, which stands for activism, “taking real action in a manner that will not only benefit students, but also protect our community and planet’s health,” community, “making our campus an engaging, accepting, and sociable one where all students feel welcome and involved,” and transparency, “making ASISU more accessible and open to the student body and to build a stronger relationship between ASISU and its constituents.”
Four members of the Amplify Party ran for Senate seats, and all of them won their races.
“We were very involved on campus and social media to spread our ideas on how we believe that we can better campus life,” said Josie Elam, Senator-elect for the College of Pharmacy and member of the Amplify Party. “We developed a party of honest and motivated individuals, which allowed us to succeed in the election.”
Many of the Amplify candidates voiced discontent with the lack of student activities during the 2020-2021 school year, which were scaled back due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“I decided to run for ASISU because I saw that the campus has basically flatlined for the last year. Club activities have been repressed, campus-wide events have been few and far between and student organizations across campus have struggled to remain active and find new members,” said Alex Diviney, Amplify Party member and Senator-elect for the College of Science & Engineering.
Jeremiah Schillz, Amplify Party member and Senator-elect for the College of Business, said, “I have noticed a lack of student involvement on campus. Even being as active as I am, it’s still difficult to get access to information about events or clubs until what feels like the last minute!”
While Chance Hense and Derek Odgers, executive ticket candidates for the Bengals United Party didn’t win their election, three candidates won their Senate races. Those candidates are Elizabeth Givens, Senator-elect for the College of Nursing, Carmen Napoles, Senator-elect for the College of Arts & Letters and Mikayla Macaluso, Senator-elect for the College of Science & Engineering.
A number of other candidates won who were unaffiliated with a political party. Xavier Jenkins became Senator-elect for Graduate Studies as a write-in candidate and thanked his fellow graduate students in the Department of Biological Sciences for his win.
“I hope to do everything I can to boost undergraduate involvement in ISU’s many research labs, and in particular those of underrepresented groups!” Jenkins said.
Zachary Clare, Senator-elect for the College of Rehabilitation & Communication Sciences, also won as a write-in candidate.
“Now that I have been elected I hope to help my peers in the School of Rehab and Communication Sciences by being their voice and representing them while making ISU a better place,” Clare said.
Emma Watts, Senator-elect for the College of Arts & Letters, was involved in student government in high school and knew she wanted to continue that involvement at ISU. In the next year, she plans to assist the transition to in-person classes by prioritizing mental health resources, promoting diversity on campus and integrating sustainability into campus life.
“I believe that institutional change is greatly needed to reduce unnecessary energy consumption and waste production,” Watts said.
In addition to this, Watts also hopes to, “strengthen student-teacher or student-student relationships through a new mentorship program within each department.” Elam also voiced a goal to implement a program like this where incoming students are guided by an upperclassman.
Many of the different candidates voiced goals to make ISU a more sustainable campus. Elam said she wants to see a campus garden established for students to use. Watts wants to establish more points around campus with recycling bins. Diviney stated that he wants to stop the e-wasting of decommissioned ISU computers and donate some of them to the community.
The new student officers will take office at the start of the summer and serve until their term expires at the end of the Spring 2022 semester. Election results can be viewed at isu.edu/elections/election-results/
