The Nevada Sagebrush sat down with the candidates running for the presidency and vice presidency of the Associated Students of the University of Nevada (ASUN) to hear about their major policies, their thoughts on the concert and more. The primary election, which will narrow down the presidential field to two candidates, began on March 4 at 8 a.m. and closes tonight at 5 p.m. The general election will begin next week on March 11 at 8 a.m. and close March 12 at 5 p.m.
Gunning for the presidency are students Jef Cordova, Natalie Palmer and Dillon Moss. Cordova and Moss are campaigning with vice presidential candidates; Stryker Zerr with Cordova and Luke Calderon with Moss. Palmer is not running with a vice presidential candidate, but told the Sagebrush she would be comfortable working with whichever vice presidential candidate wins.
Moss and Calderon are currently ASUN senators for the colleges of Education and Business respectively, while Palmer previously served as a senator for the College of Science. Cordova and Zerr have pitched their ticket as an outsider campaign from students who haven’t previously served in ASUN.
When asked about their major policies, candidates turned their attention to student well-being, events and supporting clubs. “Visibility, I think when it comes to the budget [ASUN] I think is very important. So ASUN having the $3.8 million dollar budget—making it more accessible—and making sure it’s getting out to students,” Natalie Palmer said.
Palmer also stressed that she would be an advocate for marginalized students, and touted plans for a large potential “field day” event hosted by ASUN in which students could enjoy outdoor games and grilling.
Cordova’s campaign also brought up transparency as a major issue for them. “Not all budget meetings are actually published… ASUN, you know, says they’re transparent and I do believe them, but maybe not as digestible,” Jef Cordova said. Cordova suggested creating easy-to-comprehend materials describing how the ASUN budget was used and more accessible summaries of meetings. Transparency has been a major theme of Cordova and Zerr’s campaign, and they mentioned it frequently throughout the interview as well as their campaign materials.
Dillon Moss zeroed in on student employment and how the current system for on-campus jobs can be frustrating. “The student employment office, the whole idea behind it, is making sure students have access to a job that supports their education, because a lot of the time we’re hearing from students that they try to apply for things on campus—and they never hear back from these places,” said Moss. “So we really want a student employment office to help clean up Workday postings.”
Calderon brought up a proposed policy of theirs that would subsidize testing fees for graduating undergraduate students who have to take exams like the LSAT, MCAT and Praxis tests, calling it the Furthering Education Fee Waiver Program.
Both Cordova and Moss’ campaigns advocated making it easier for clubs at UNR to access the money allocated to them through ASUN, which is around $1000 per club with varying amounts available for different club uses. Palmer spoke about loosening application requirements for ASUN’s Passion Fund, which subsidizes the cost of club fees for student organizations that charge them.
All candidates interviewed recognized the importance of having the ear of university administration and local politicians, and said they would let officials know about students’ concerns, particularly the rising cost of living and attending university.
Palmer, who was a senator in the 92nd and 93rd ASUN senate sessions but resigned from her position as a senator during the 93rd, told the Sagebrush she had done so because she felt as though the environment within ASUN at the time made it difficult to collaborate. When asked if she would be able to work within ASUN as president, she said she would due to the different nature of the role and new faces being present in ASUN.
Cordova mentioned that he had been criticized by some students for his lack of ASUN experience, but said, “But what I do have for these past three years is the student experience.”
When asked about why Moss and Calderon wanted to pursue executive office when they were both sitting senators, Moss brought his answer back to student advocacy saying that they wanted to try and bring the price of education down with the access of the presidency. “And sometimes that’s difficult as a senator, frankly, just because you may not have the same pull as the president of the association,” he said.
The ASUN presidential primary is open on PackLife until 5 p.m. today.
Interviews were conducted with the assistance of Emilio Milo, Olivia Spargur, Ella Strobo and James Wolfgang Perez.
This article was updated at 9:30 a.m. on March 6. The original article stated that Natalie Palmer was a senator only during the 92nd; it has been updated to reflect that she served in both the 92nd and 93rd before resigning.
