Associated Students of Colorado State University president and vice-president candidates Flint Corliss and Wyatt Mount have centered their campaign around the notions of self-care and being as available as possible to the student body.
“So we decided to run because through following ASCSU, we noticed some things that could be improve(d) through transparency and actually listening to the student’s voices,” Corliss wrote in a statement to The Collegian. “Coming from outside organizations, we would like to use the networks and connections associated with clubs and organizations.”
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Flint Corliss, presidential candidate
Formerly an ASCSU senator for the College of Agricultural Sciences, Flint Corliss is a third-year agricultural business and economics major. During his time as a senator, Corliss said he wrote a resolution and sponsored numerous others.
Having previously served as a senator, Corliss expressed the separation he has seen between ASCSU and their constituents.
“I understand the inner workings of how ASCSU runs and the necessity and formality of the organization,” Corliss said. “I’d say since then, kind of stepping away, I noticed that there’s been a big rise in the desire of wanting constituent input.”
Corliss said he has been invested in the community and invested in networking and community outreach which has afforded him a unique opportunity.
Wyatt Mount, vice presidential candidate
An ASCSU outsider, junior agricultural business and accounting major Wyatt Mount is an avidly involved member of the community.
Mount focused on his accounting background as an asset to the student body, also emphasizing his versatility. Mount said working on his family’s ranch has given him experience with large budgets similar to those ASCSU works with. Mount also said that working at the Candlelight Dinner Playhouse has allowed him to connect with people in new ways.
“I got to learn a lot of working with people, creating that one-on-one contact with people to make them feel valued and to make them feel welcome,” Mount said.
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Their platform
First and foremost, Corliss and Mount want students to know that they want to be an advocate for them.
Spending the first few days of their campaign collecting students’ ideas on what they would like to see change at CSU, the candidates emphasized their “listening first and speaking second” approach.
Corliss and Mount want to take existing programs and build them up further. The major focus of their platform is a three-pronged self-care plan: food, housing and mental health.
Mount said food insecurity should not be a stressor for students, explaining that the candidates want to work with Rams Against Hunger to grow the scope of students they reach.
Last fall, after the largest freshman class ever, approximately 100 freshmen had to live in overflow housing after the dorms hit capacity. Mount said in response, they want to work with CSU to rework the Live On campaign to include freshmen.
Concerning mental health, Mount said that they want to work with the Health Network Counseling Services to grow what is already there, as well as to work to diminish the stigma surrounding mental health.
“We also want to work to get rid of that negative stigma so people aren’t just seen as weak for having mental health and instead of seeing are seen as strong for being willing to go get help,” Mount said. “So we’re kind of stretching out our hand to help those people.”
Corliss said through student input, they added parking to their platform and had reached out to Parking and Transportation Services to set up a meeting with their director and deputy director.
“We want to take those responses that we got and amplify them in places that matter in places of importance where we can actually get things changed,” Corliss said.
Meagan Stackpool can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @MeaganStackpool.
