Student government elections are just around the corner, and candidates for president and vice president of the Associated Students of Portland State University are beginning to organize their campaigns. Voting is scheduled to start on May 7 and will close on May 21, with candidate debates in-between. Election results will be announced on May 22.
Student government elections are just around the corner, and candidates for president and vice president of the Associated Students of Portland State University are beginning to organize their campaigns. Voting is scheduled to start on May 7 and will close on May 21, with candidate debates in-between. Election results will be announced on May 22.
All candidates share platforms that center on bringing the focus back to the PSU student body. Currently there are three pairs of candidates and two solo-running individuals campaigning for president and vice president, respectively: Diamond Zerework with Anam Pasha; Victor Mena with Mona Syeda; Tiffany Dollar with Marlon Holms; and Ethan Allen Smith and Ahmed Bohliqa both running as solo-individuals.
Political science senior Diamond Zerework has been interested and engaged in public service since high school and through her college career at PSU. Minoring in law and legal studies, Zerework has served as a student senator in ASPSU for all four years of her time at PSU.
Zerework’s running mate Anam Pasha is a graduating senior and will be entering the master’s program in engineering and technology management. Pasha has participated with Model UN, served as a senator representative for the school of engineering and is involved with the Multicultural Center.
Highlights of their platform include stopping tuition hikes and raising general student awareness and accessibility to scholarship and grant opportunities. “If elected into ASPSU office, the first things that we hope to gain are better and more positive relations with the overall student body,” Pasha wrote in an email interview.
“Both of us have been at PSU from our freshman year, and have grown to know and love everything about PSU’s culture and community,” Zerework wrote in an email interview. “We aim to represent all Portland State University students across institutional, city, state, and federal levels.”
Criminal justice junior Victor Mena is currently the multicultural affairs director for ASPSU. He is the first of his family to graduate high school and study at the university level. Originally a student at Portland Community College, he was an active participant at the Multicultural Center where he acted as a liaison between the center and PCC’s student government. He later became directly involved in the PCC student government and served as the assistant director of Campus Affairs, focusing on the college’s budget while representing student interests.
Business management and human resources junior Mona Syeda is Mena’s running mate. She has experience in ASPSU as a student senator, working on projects such as the recent pep rally and matters for the Cultural Centers Committee.
Mena wrote in an email interview that the focus ASPSU has given to tuition hikes, while important, took away some of the necessary focus on the PSU student body: “I believe we have paid less attention to what we as ASPSU should be doing. We should be making campus life for all students welcoming, engaging and suitable for our students that come with diverse backgrounds, situations and needs.”
Syeda concurs with Mena, and wrote in an email interview that their platform is focused on “[building] community at Portland State.”
“We need to take a grassroots approach to building a strong PSU community. ASPSU is meant to be the primary face of Portland State; therefore having a connection to all students on campus is essential and my number one priority,” Mena said.
History junior Tiffany Dollar currently serves on the ASPSU executive staff as legislative affairs director. She transferred to PSU in spring 2011, bringing with her experience from high school as well as from PCC where she studied prior to PSU. Dollar served as a senator for PCC’s student government.
“My first foray into the political arena was volunteering with Basic Rights Oregon in 2004 while I was still in high school. As a high school student I was instrumental in founding the Gay Straight Alliance club,” Dollar wrote in an email interview.
Outlining her experience, Dollar wrote: “As ASPSU Legislative Affairs Director I spent two days a week throughout the 2012 legislative session in Salem. I was influential in the passage of the Textbook Affordability Act (passed both chambers with a super-majority) and directly lobbied for the $10 million increase to the Oregon Student Access Commission budget.”
Dollar’s running mate, Marlon Holms was unable to be reached for comment by time of publication.
Graphic design junior Ethan Allen Smith has previously served as an ASPSU senator, president pro tempore of the senate, and vice president of ASPSU. Currently he holds the position of treasurer of the Friends of Graphic Design student group. This year, the group presented at the National Show in Dallas, TX, where executive officers hosted a workshop titled “How to Run an Effective Student Group.”
According to Smith, the presentation “was not only well received, but helped set Portland State University as one of the premier state schools in the country.”
Smith has yet to choose a vice president candidate and “will not until the Elections Board dictates that I must, constitutionally. I will appoint a vice president from the pool of candidates who run for a win office during this election,” he wrote in an email interview. “I will also only appoint a vice president who is willing to work for ASPSU on a volunteer basis and will refuse to take student fee money during their term.”
One major point of Smith’s platform is that he will move ASPSU positions to unpaid volunteer posts. “I am running with a single, overarching goal: to defund all paid positions in ASPSU and give the money back to the students,” Smith said. “Nearly every major university student government (including Harvard, Yale, and Stanford) serve as volunteers. There is absolutely no reason why Portland State should be taking student money to pay its representatives,” he added.
“I will only appoint officers who will refuse the absurdly overblown ASPSU leadership award. I will also refuse my own leadership award (nearly $3,000 per term). I will reject any budget that takes more money from students,” Smith wrote.
Ahmed Bohliqa was unable to be reached for comment.
Candidates will be participating in a string of orientations throughout the month of April. For more information on how to run for ASPSU office or on the elections process, visit ASPSU’s website at aspsu.pdx.edu/elections-board.html
Wow, Smith must not realized that some people have to work to get through college. When you defund student leadership positions, you make it prohibitive to students that would otherwise work 20+ hours at a second or third job. Being able to pay student leaders allows a greater swathe of students at PSU to get involved.
Hey Kevin, ASPSU isn’t supposed to replace a job in college. When I was in ASPSU I took 12 credits and worked 25 hours a week at a food service job to support myself. Yeah I was incredibly busy with another 25-30 hours per week going to ASPSU, and I loved it.
And guess what, I had it easy! My father, grandfather, and older brother all went to college on the GI Bill after serving in war.
Anyone who claims they’re unable to serve in ASPSU unless they’re paid, is someone who is making excuses for their own incapability to work hard. ASPSU positions are NOT a replacement for a part-time job, they are leadership positions that come with many other gifts besides a paycheck taken from your peers.
Kevin, ASPSU isn’t supposed to replace a job in college, you still have to do that too. When I was on ASPSU exec I took 12-16 credits and worked 25 hours a week at a food service job to support myself. I was incredibly busy with another 25-30 hours per week going to ASPSU.
Anyone who claims they’re unable to serve in ASPSU unless they’re paid, is someone who is making excuses for their own unwillingness to work hard. ASPSU positions are NOT a replacement for a part-time job, they are leadership positions that come with many other benefits besides a paycheck taken from your peers.
I was paid a stipend for my work. I’m not making a judgement on whether students deserve a stipend or not, but it is absurd to claim that not getting paid for work in ASPSU will inhibit you from doing said work. College is hard work, and as a student leader you should be working harder than most – trust me it’ll pay off for you down the road. Additionally, judging from the outstanding leadership and work done by unpaid officers in student organizations here, perhaps money incentives are not the right one for ASPSU.
It seems like Smith’s only goal as President is to make it so students who are marginalized won’t be able to be become involved with ASPSU. Also, PSU is NOT like those ivy leagues mentioned. Those who attend a PRIVATE university like Harvard or Stanford are there because they can afford to (mommy & daddy, legacy, mostly Caucasion students, etc) while PSU is a STATE college and comprised of mostly commuters, and is the most diverse univeristy in the state. I also question if Smith has any tangible goals besides “Occupying ASPSU” for his administration should he win.
Google any major university and look at their student government budget. I only mentioned those particular universities because they are well known, not because they are privileged. For instance, I randomly googled Chico State just now. They do not pay their student representatives.
Each university exists in its own socio-economic environment. Funding student leadership positions should be based on the context of that environment. If ASPSU is to be defunded than ALL paid leaderships should be as well — Vanguard included.
If you defund ASPSU you will only get those who can afford to do so, which will then change the activist nature of ASPSU (not to mention how effective it is). It’s actually a sad campaign position to take for someone who has clumsily co-opted the Occupy tag for his slate name, especially since Occupy is about empowering the poor and creating opportunities for everyone, not empowering the elites.
“Minoring in law and legal studies, Zerework has served as a student senator in ASPSU for all four years of her time at PSU.”
Really? I would love to see the minutes from last year reflect that.
Diamond was not a Senator while I served in ASPSU, which was all of last year. I’m not sure how she can claim to have served as a Senator for 4 years.
If you are sick of ASPSU taking student fees and transferring it directly into their bank account, join me in occupying ASPSU.
Maybe “Occupy ASPSU”should be posting under his real name: Ethan Allen Smith. Or are you afraid of being honest with the student body?
Said the anonymous person listed only as “student.”
I’m not at all afraid to have my name connected to Occupy ASPSU, hence why I did this interview and am listed, bu name, in the article.