With the end of the semester comes the end of a term. Our Associated Student Government President Ben Linzey will be graduating at the end of the semester, effectively ending his term as ASG president. So with Linzey gone, who will take up the mantle of ASG president?
While there are no official candidates for the role of president as no one can start campaigning before anyone else, there are a couple of possible senators that could be seen running to become president in the future. It is important to keep in mind that the people named in this article are purely conjectured and there is no concrete definition of them willing or wanting to run.
One of the main candidates is Beau Flores. Once the semester and term come to an end, he will be the only member left of the executive branch of the ASG. This gives him a bit of an edge to the seat. He is also the current student trustee in the branch, so he has become knowledgeable to the processes of ASG and the executive branch.
“Beau has been our student trustee this year and is pretty knowledgeable,” Linzey said.
Another name that has been talked about for president is Richard Nguyen. Nguyen has been busy within ASG over his term. He is a senator of Language, Literature, and Mass Communications. He has been a big participant in bills and has even made some big questions regarding things around campus. This makes Nguyen a vocal member of ASG and a possible candidate for the upcoming election due to his experience.
“Richard has been pretty involved in a lot of the bills and discussion that’s been going on,” Linzey said.
The last prospective candidate is Jeff Vela, the campus resident senator. With the departure of the seniors in ASG, he will be one of the students with the most time in ASG. This makes him a strong candidate for the president seat since he has had the time to serve in the ASG and show participation and effort for the organization.
He is also an active member of the Senate and has done work on several projects. One such project was the smoking policy, which he spear-headed and worked on to make a more effective and efficient one than the ruling we had at the beginning of the year.
“I know that Jeff has been here the longest out of all three of them,” Linzey said.
Among all of these prospects, there is always the possibility that a person way out of left field decides to throw their hat in the ring. The role of ASG president is open to any student that is willing to run, it is not just allocated to those already in ASG.
“Obviously experience is good,” Linzey said. “But we don’t want to discount any leaders outside of ASG.”
The next semester’s campaign will prove to be a competitive one as that offers the broadest opportunity to get the best president from the student body.
