Joel Martin, presidential candidate, sees a lot of issues when he looks at the Associated Students of the University of Nevada, Reno – a lot that aren’t being addressed but rather pushed away.
“Currently, I’m just seeing a lot of problems with the University at ASUN that I think we can address,” Martin said. “Last year, as a sophomore, I really felt like I could be the president. I really considered running. I had seen some issues that I thought I could improve, that are outlined in my campaign…last year, and I really thought I could do it. But let me tell you, sitting here now, I couldn’t have done it back then; I needed another year in the senate – I needed more time – and you learn that as you are in the association for a long time, how to better represent the student body. I wasn’t ready then, but I am more than ready now.”
Martin currently holds one of the four seats representing the College of Liberal Arts alongside his opponent Carmina Aglubat, who serves as a Speaker pro tempore of ASUN’s senate.
Voting begins March 12 at 8 a.m. and ends March 13 at 5 p.m. You can reach it at this link when it opens.
Camryn Caruso, a junior journalism student, has never been a part of ASUN. However, regardless of her lack of experience in the association, she notices how the University is slowly losing what it once had.
“Joel invited me to grab coffee with him and he told me about his plans to run for presidency and told me about his campaign and all of the issues that he’s seen– and I said ‘great how can I help’ and he told me to be his running mate,” Caruso said.
Caruso continued: “I kinda gave him that look of ‘uhh, no’, but I do think at the end of the day how can I not; because this is something that’s going to be an amazing thing to be a part of, if we are elected. I’m excited to be a new perspective and a new voice so that way, the student body has someone who’s a journalist to speak for them. You need someone who wants what’s best for the student body.” Caruso said.
The running mates see problems that create one main issue. The student body isn’t being heard and isn’t being taken care of the way they should be. Martin, who is a Reno local, sees a lack of community within not only the campus life, but between the University and the Reno/Tahoe area as a whole. While Caruso, who’s originally from Las Vegas, considers Reno to be her home, sees a drastic decline from when she first started attending UNR years prior.
At the top of their pillars is “Prosperity”, which aims to make education more affordable through expanding club funding, pushing for state-level student support, advocating for affordable housing, etc.
“If you’re paying $6.17 per credit, you should see that money coming back to you and that’s mainly going to be from the clubs you’re in,” Caruso said.
Martin and Caruso argue that students are the soul of the University, and if the students are struggling, so is the Campus. Since Reno is considered more of a college town, if the University doesn’t thrive, how can the community?
“Regarding student housing, we just had a student who lives at The Dean come talk to us, a few senate meetings ago, and she’s seen major disparities in the rent control around here,” Martin said. “It’s all over the place, and students have to live over here, some people from out of town are forced to live in those main apartment buildings on that stretch of Virginia Street […] and we have the audacity to be playing around with the rent.”
“The Legislature is in Carson City, which is 45 minutes away, we are a huge voice inside that legislature. […] they’ll hear you out, if they have a passionate constituent in front of them, they will listen. We [UNR Students] have so much more of a voice than we are led on to believe.” Said Martin. “I mean the Board of Regents are literally right up the street.”
Their pillars, “Advancement” and “Knowledge”, go hand in hand, with the candidates wanting to give aid to students who want to take that next step, from improving academic support services to introducing more career mentorship programs. They argue that the university is not doing its job correctly if their students are not succeeding after graduating.
“Reno is in a predicament, where we have all these facilities, we have all these people who are driven, that want to do all this stuff, but they don’t have the opportunity to apply that to the community…college is a stepping stone, so we want to help that with more career fairs.” Said Martin
Their last pillar, “Community,” that both Martin and Caruso are most passionate about, goes more in depth about tradition and how campus life has dwindled over the years, especially with the welcome week concert, campus programming in local businesses, etc.
“When you grab sand on the beach and you try to hold it, and you know it’s just going to come out cause it’s not going to stay there. It feels like that’s tradition at this campus. We’re trying to hold onto all of them, but we’re doing so much wrong, it’s just trickling out.” Said Martin.
Your voice. Your vision. Our Pack, the duo’s platform, has all of their campaign information, including their pillars that are composed of a magnitude of different issues that revolves around their Pack Pact, which can be found at their website.
The presidential and vice presidential candidates are expected to face off in their first and only debate this election cycle, today, March 8, at 1 p.m in the Joe Crowley Student Union Theater.
Alex Psak can be reached via email apsak@unr.edu or on Instagram @alexandrapsak.
