The three ASWSU presidential tickets for the 2012-2013 school year were announced Friday providing promises of challenging the status quo, university changes and a commitment to higher education support.
The candidates were announced at the ASWSU Election Board meeting. The meeting informed the runners about the election codes and decided the order each campaign would appear on the ballot.
The first candidates on the March ballot will be Joey Pacific, 21, a junior political science major and Samantha Hege, 22, a senior neuroscience and psychology major.
Kyle Erdman, 22, a junior English major and Derrick Skaug, 21, a senior political science major will be second on the ballot, followed by Luis Cuevas, 21, a junior communication major and Lindsey Jahn, 20, a junior business marketing major to complete the ballot.
“Well we feel confident,” Pacific said. “We’re ready, we feel we’re prepared to take the positions and we are eager to show the student body why we’re the best choice to lead ASWSU next year.”
Hege said their campaign has a great team behind them and they look forward to showing the students their platform.
According to Pacific and Hege’s campaign website their platform includes challenging the status quo, innovative thinking, representation of all Cougs, transparency and accountability and follow through.
Skaug commented in a phone call to The Daily Evergreen regarding his ticket and platform.
“Kyle and I were extremely excited to have this opportunity,” Skaug said, “and we spent a lot of thought and time on why we wanted to run, if it was the right decision and what we could do if elected.”
Skaug said their platform focuses on themes that ASWSU can use to bring change to the university. Their six themes are service, engagement, wellbeing, academics, athletic pride, and keeping WSU world class, he said.
After the Election Board Meeting, Cuevas commented on his campaign ticket.
“I think we’ve been really talking about it for a couple months, the idea of running together,” Cuevas said, “I think now that’s down to this point, our faith is something that’s really important to us, I think that’s probably been one of the foundations of us even running and having a stable mind and heart about running for office.”
According to Cuevas and Jahn’s official campaign Facebook page their platform is commitment to higher education support, student life, academics and transparency.
“I think elections are always an exciting time for the student body,” said Jake Bredstrand, student regent and former ASWSU president.
Bredstrand said his advice to candidates is to use the resources available through the Election Board and to always ask questions for clarification when unsure.
“Nobody wants to see elections get ugly and get tons of violations and tons of bad press that comes with that,” he said. “I think if the candidates are transparent with each other, put a lot of genuine effort in and use their resources I think it’ll be smooth.”
