Former Spokane Mayor Mary Verner and Associated Students of the University of Idaho (ASUI) President Samantha Perez will attend the ASWSU Senate meeting Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. in CUB 204.
“Mayor Verner just finished her term as mayor of Spokane,” said ASWSU Senate Pro-Tempore Derrick Skaug. “She brings a wealth of knowledge about, you know, local government, public service and there is WSU Spokane that she has been involved with as mayor.”
Skaug said hearing Verner’s thoughts on government and how it operates will help the ASWSU as a student government. The main topic will be higher education and public service, he said.
“I am very excited to be a guest of ASWSU and speak to WSU students about higher education and public service,” Verner said.
Bringing public figures to WSU gives students the opportunity to meet with government officials, said District 1 Senator Brenna Stroup.
ASWSU invited the ASUI president because of possible missed opportunities for collaboration between the two organizations in the past, Skaug said. This is the first step in opening a dialogue between the two governments, he said. President Perez will be talking about how the ASUI system works and different ways the two student bodies can work together.
“I’ve been in ASUI for the past four years,” Perez said. “It’ll be exciting to collaborate with ASWSU just to learn a little bit more about the student government there and then find ways that we can collaborate.”
Perez said one way the two groups can work together on is entertainment. ASUI is excited about the idea of collaborating with ASWSU because working together with other student governments and sharing ideas is really important, she said.
“I think that we’re both serving the same purpose just on our different campuses,” she said. “So it’s always great to collaborate and work together to accomplish the same goals.”
An example of a collaboration project would be concerts with well-known artists, Skaug said. If the two governments worked together, there could be an option of equal student ticket pricing for performances at WSU and UI, he said.
“I’m wondering if maybe ASWSU is interested in working not only with entertainment or our senates but also the two presidents,” Perez said. “I think that we could accomplish a lot together and so I think partnering is a really great move.”
Skaug and the ASWSU Senate External Affairs Committee have worked hard to bring guests from local and state governments, said Nicholas Ramirez, district 10 senator and the External Relations chair. The senate guests have helped start discussion between the students of WSU and important decision makers from around the state.
“We encourage all WSU students to attend our meetings and be a part of this dialogue we are starting between public figures around the state,” Skaug said.
