Courtney Taylor

ASR: What experience do you have that qualifies you for the position you’re running for?

Taylor: I’d say that I have just enough experience in politics to know how to work within the system. I was an assistant campaign manager on a library campaign…we brought two new libraries to Vancouver. I have informally met a lot of politicians because it’s part of my major, so I’ve had the opportunity to talk to quite a few local politicians about what their job is like and what it really means, and the best way for me to break onto that scene because it’s what I want to do. So I know them and I’m friends with them. Like Tim Douglas who was the last interim mayor of Bellingham. We had lunch a few weeks ago and we talked live and politics and stuff.

But beyond that my experience is really in the leadership realm. Here at Western I’ve been an RA [Resident Advisor] for two years, I was an orientation student advisor and then a lead orientation student advisor the next year for summer start, and so I really do know the systems within Western and how they govern us. So I kind of want to find a balance between those two, of knowing the system but also being able to effect change, and I think my experience has really helped me to learn how to do that the best way.

Virgilio Cintron

ASR: What experience do you have that makes you qualified for this position?

Cintron: I currently work in the AS Board office as the assistant to the vice president for Diversity and Activities. I have also been the co-president of the Latino Student Union for the past two years and budget authority before that. On top of that, I currently serve on several AS committees. I currently serve on the Dining Service Committee, AS Budget Committee, Diversity Task Force, Student Technology Fee Committee, Facilities and Services Council, AS Management Council, Ethnic Student Center Presidents Council and took part of the ACE Leadership Retreat.

I have a big working knowledge of the Associated Students and I think that’s something essential, especially for business and operations because they deal with the personal and management component, the budget component and the services and facilities component. Having served on those three committees and working with the previous, and this year’s, VP for Business and Operations has given me great insight. As well, being an assistant has helped me really learn the organization structures.

Andrea Goddard

ASR: What kind of experience do you have that qualifies you for the position you’re running for?

Goddard: I have experience working with several different offices in the university. I started getting involved by working as an orientation student advisor and volunteering for Discovering Days. Recently I’ve started to work more with academic offices; I am currently a coordinator in the AS Personal Office and through that I started getting involved in more academic committees and started working closely with the board. I’ve worked with the student academic grievance board, the academic honesty board and the university’s judicial appeals board.

ASR: What are your three biggest goals for next year?

Goddard: One, a lot of students get involved in the university through clubs or offices but I feel like the academic side is kind of disconnected from students. I want to work to bridge that gap between the student body and the administration because they have a lot of power over academic policy that will affect every one of us. I would like to increase student involvement in university committees, I want to represent students, but I also want to give students themselves a chance to get involved on the academic side.

Kayla Britt

ASR: What experience do you have that makes you qualified for this position?

Britt: First I would say that I am the current vice president for Diversity, so I am running for reelection. I feel like I have a lot of experience under my belt being VP for Diversity this year and I have done a lot of things different that past VPs for Diversity have not done. It has given me a good working knowledge of the AS. My approach to the position has been that it is very important to raise awareness about different issues but I think that sometimes we talk about the same things over and over again and no one really does anything about it.

One thing I did was I started working with the [Ethnic Student Center] ESC and started updating the organizational system because it had not been updated in seven years. It is really expanding and it wasn’t able to adapt to the growth of students. I helped teach the students that they can make the changes themselves and teaching them how to evolve them over the years so that they will stay current.

Nina Lau

ASR: What experience do you have that qualifies you for the position you’re running for?

Lau: That’s funny that you asked that because last year my experience was only working with high school leadership and since then I’m the current vice president for student life. I have had the full experience for three and a half quarters now. I’ve worked with administrators, I’ve had to meet new people and make those connections and have ongoing communications with them. That has been the majority of my experience and also figuring out the change over from campus to community affairs which was Kevin McLane, the predecessor; his responsibilities were different than the responsibilities for student life.

So Erik Lowe and I spent a lot of the time digressing on what responsibilities were his and what responsibilities are mine and which offices or entities I actually work with. It included the health center, it included RHA [Residence Hall Advisory] some of which the connections have been lost, and then this year I decided to add athletics into it because I feel like athletics is a huge part of our student population that kind of is ignored organizationally from that standpoint. So I made this connection with the athletics department which is like 500 plus student population of our student body. And it could definitely swing a vote, you know, for instance, and they should have a say in things. I’ve actually made the effort to reach out and do that. That is experience I can bring to this position next year.

Tino Quiroga

ASR: What experience do you have that qualifies you for the position you’re running for?

Quiroga: This year, I’m going to go back for a moment. I’m a student advisor in Delta, up on the ridge. That I think is an experience in its own. I feel like being an RA you have a lot of influence on a lot of people in the dorms and that if I take on the position of Vice President of Activities it’s like having an effect on a larger population than just the smaller population of 500.

I think activities runs very closely with programming. Programs are what we put on for residents. So I feel like activities run very closely because you have to advertise, first of all, second of all you need to get people involved, to plan it and delegate out tasks, I feel like that’s a huge part of it because nobody can do activities by themselves. I feel like I can have dedication to the job. Being a RA [resident advisor], I’m kind of comparing it to this job because; being an RA you have to go door to door and talk face to face. I definitely feel confident talking to people. Hopefully they can come and talk to me and I’m somebody that’s really approachable for them.

Western’s campus always seems to be humming with the static of certain buzzwords: eco-friendly, and grassroots just to name a few. But none seems quite so prevalent as the term social justice.

The Western Debate Union, a group of students who debate competitively and also facilitate community dialogue in controversial issues, will be putting on its fifth annual free CASCAID Social Justice Conference May 2 and 3 with hope to give new life and definition to this term. The conference will offer workshops on topics broadly ranging from the death with dignity act to empowering women in Kenya, from modern slavery to how to write a letter to a politician.

Steven Woods, a communications professor, is helping organize the conference. He explained that the idea behind the theme is that it creates a large umbrella that can contain many topics. The conference planners didn’t want to identify specifically as a peace conference because that title gets lumped into the category of anti-war, Woods said, and the other planners wanted the conference to remain open to everyone.

May 1 is Yom Hashoah, or international Holocaust Remembrance Day. Hillel of WWU and STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition are hosting Holocaust Remembrance Week.

Today, the word “Holocaust” is primarily used to refer to the killing of approximately six million European Jews, as well as gay men, gypsies, the disabled, and political and religious dissidents, during World War II. Originally, it is a Greek word which translates to “burnt whole.”

In Hebrew, the Holocaust is called “Shoah,” which means “storm,” Hillel of WWU President Anna Talvi said.

This is the first major campus event Hillel has hosted in about ten years related to Holocaust remembrance, Talvi said. To spread the word about Holocaust Remembrance Week, Hillel is teaming up with STAND.

“STAND does wonderful work on this campus in terms of raising awareness of modern day genocide and crimes against humanity,” Talvi said. “We really wanted to bring student activists in to serve as experts.”

It’s that time of year again: from the huge banners in Red Square and small signs in dining halls to the candidates themselves advertising in person, Western’s campus is full of reminders to vote in this week’s AS election.

According to AS Elections coordinator Ben Murphy, this year’s election advertising is meant in part to inspire a turnaround in the decreasing number of student voters.

“Last year’s turnout in general was really low, lower even than years past,” Murphy said. “We’re on a downward trend, and pinpointing the exact reason why is impossible. But we’re looking past that and trying to encourage everyone by working through new mediums to advertise the elections.”

In addition to the posters and banners, the AS recently released a promotional video produced by KVIK encouraging students to vote and educating them on the importance of taking part in the election. The candidates also made stops in residence halls and took part in two candidate forums, held April 21 and 24.