“What’s a common goal that every student has?”
This question is one presidential and vice-presidential candidates Beau Flores and Jeff Vela asked themselves as they pondered the focus of their campaign and their possible presidency.
The answer was simple according to Flores: their education. While not all students participate in the clubs and organizations that Colorado Mesa University offers, every student is here for an education. In keeping with their campaign slogan “standing up for you,” Flores and Vela want to advocate for the individual voices of students.
“What we mean by that [slogan] is standing up for the individual voices of students, whether that’s a student in the nursing program, a student trying to get into the nursing program or a poli-sci student, an art student,” Vela explained. “Every student here has individual needs and wants, and has individual ideas.”
As veteran members of the Associated Student Government—Flores has served a year as student trustee and Vela for two years as a senator—the candidates want to keep some of the positive aspects of current President Ben Linzey and Vice President Gabby Gile’s administration, but with a more individualized and academic-oriented approach.
This year’s ASG specifically pushed for collaboration and connection between senators and clubs. Vela himself suggested the bylaw amendment that has senators meet directly with club leaders, a change he believed valuable after ASG assigned senators to represent specific clubs.
However, Flores pointed out that not all students—in fact many—are not involved in extracurricular activities at CMU. Many just attend class, and many just want to receive their degree.
The difference between the Flores-Vela campaign and the Troester-Harwell or the current Linzey-Gile administration is their focus on connecting with department heads.
If the amended constitution passes its student vote in the upcoming election, senators will now be allotted per department. Such a change is significant and gives senators the opportunity to connect directly with department heads to listen to their concerns.
“I want to personally push the senators to meet with department heads so we can meet with those senators and get feedback from department heads and go straight to Marshall’s office, straight to Foster’s office and say: these are what issues these departments are facing, and these are the ideas we have to improve and enhance the education of those on campus,” Vela said.
The Flores-Vela plan is designed to make the process more direct for students to get their important concerns all the way to the administration, and allow department heads and ASG to tackle smaller concerns.
As CMU continues to grow, Vela thinks this connection between students, departments and administrators is especially important for ASG to facilitate.
“We’re growing a lot horizontally, but we need to grow vertically, in substance and depth,” Vela said.
Flores and Vela acknowledged the size of this project and stated the wanted to tackle this project and lay a good foundation for tackling other projects if they win the presidency. However, both had many ideas as to how ASG could continue to improve for its students.
One of these was transparency, a large concern during the early months of the Linzey-Gile administration. While both said the current ASG had made important changes in helping the student government become more transparent, there was more work to be done.
Vela provided an easy change he and Flores hope to make: making all financial documents easy to access on their website.
“Everyone, I believe, should be able to go on our website and access all the documents and know how much money we’re spending or passing each week,” Vela said. He hoped such steps would ensure there was no confusion between ASG and the media, the administration or students.
Apart from their specific goals for next year’s ASG, Flores and Vela often returned to one specific qualification: their experience.
Though Flores hasn’t been a member of ASG as long as Vela, he is the only returning executive from the current board as the student trustee for this year.
“Being the only one coming back on that exec board, I feel like I have to [run]. I know the steps, I know what’s needed, and I know what I have to do,” Flores said.
Though Flores himself has a year of experience in ASG, he chose Vela as his running mate based upon his even longer record with ASG, and as a current representative on the Fee Allocation Committee. Flores believed Vela’s experience sitting through two different rounds of ASG bylaw changes and on FAC for an entire year will be invaluable during the upcoming biennial year when student fees are re-allocated to organizations.
They believe their experience, combined with their different strengths, makes them qualified candidates. While Flores said he is better at talking to crowds and being the “driving force” behind the team, Vela said he is better at the background and administrative work.
If they win the presidency for next year, Flores and Vela hope to continue to make ASG into a body that students know to look to for support.
“I think we’re a lot more than people who just approve money. I want people to see that ASG is: you want something, go to a senator,” Flores said.
