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Campaigning on The Plaza: ASCSU elections begin after delay

Serena Bettis

August 31, 2020

Editor’s Note: Connor Cheadle works on the opinion desk at The Collegian.

The Associated Students of Colorado State University started its election season Monday after a months-long postponement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Campaigning began Aug. 31 and will go until Sept. 16 with voting open Sept. 14-16.

“I am looking forward to engaging students and showing students that even in the middle of a pandemic, we can run a full-fledged election with no interference and with minor changes,” said Connor Cheadle, ASCSU elections manager and elections committee chair.

Cheadle said that, because of the pandemic, elections will look slightly different this year, with no debates on The Plaza and no in-person attendance at the Lory Student Center debates. Additionally, Cheadle said the debates in the LSC have been extended to two nights.

Candidates for speaker of the senate will debate Sept. 8, and candidates for president and vice president will debate Sept. 9.

Cheadle oversees the bureaucratic side of the ASCSU elections. He makes sure that student votes stay secure, that candidates meet all the requirements for their positions and that there are no campaign violations.

“I receive the complaints from, typically, other students or other candidates because they like to fight each other,” Cheadle said. “Then we try to hear those as a committee, decide if there was a violation or not and then decide if there’s a fine.”

There are four candidates for president, all with running mates; four candidates for speaker of the senate and 10 students running for senator positions within their respective colleges. Four students are running for senator positions in the College of Liberal Arts; two in the Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering; three in the College of Natural Sciences and one student is running to represent undeclared majors.

“I want students to know that we’re still around — that the pandemic has not hindered what we do and why we do it and that … now more than ever is an important time for students to engage and to vote and to participate in the student government because of things like fee increases and the fact that we have so many online classes,” Cheadle said.

The candidates with the most votes will win a seat in the senate to represent their college. The number of senators for each college is dependent on the population of the college, with each college receiving a minimum of two senators.

Students can vote on RAMweb Sept. 14-16. Voting ends at 4 p.m. on Sept. 16.

“(We’re) still here, and the avenue for students to make a difference is via ASCSU,” Cheadle said. “(Without student) engagement, we’ll cease to exist and the student’s voice will cease to exist, and the University will have the chance to trample on us like they do so often.”

The candidates running are as follows.

President and Vice President

Diego Tovar with running mate Rachel Jackson

Hannah Taylor with running mate John “Noah” Schindler

Adam Pena with running mate Merry Gebretsadik

Jasper Sloss with running mate Mkay Armbrust

Speaker of the Senate

Kyle Hill

Tristan Reyez

Alyssa “Lys” Taddei

Christian Dykson

Senators

Benton Roesler, College of Natural Sciences

Daniel Stephenson, College of Natural Sciences

Michael Carrillo, College of Natural Sciences

Andonia “Andy” Callas, College of Liberal Arts

Marie Cusick, College of Liberal Arts

Ava McCall, College of Liberal Arts

Savanah Overturf, College of Liberal Arts

Albert Marquez, Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering

Michael Townsend, Walter Scott, Jr. College of Engineering

Greg Neubauer, Undeclared

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect more accurate information regarding the number of senators elected for each college.

Serena Bettis can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @serenaroseb.

About the Contributor

Serena Bettis, Editor in Chief

Serena Bettis is your 2022-23 editor in chief and is in her final year studying journalism and political science. In her three years at The Collegian, Bettis has also been a news reporter, copy editor, news editor and content managing editor, and she occasionally takes photos, too. When Bettis was 5, her family moved from Iowa to a tiny town northwest of Fort Collins called Livermore, Colorado, before eventually moving to Fort Collins proper. When she was 8 years old, her dad enrolled at Colorado State University as a nontraditional student veteran, where he found his life’s passion in photojournalism. Although Bettis’ own passion for journalism did not stem directly from her dad, his time at CSU and with The Collegian gave her the motivation to bite down on her fear of talking to strangers and find The Collegian newsroom on the second day of classes in 2019. She’s never looked back since. Considering that aforementioned fear, Bettis is constantly surprised to be where she is today. However, thanks to the supportive learning environment at The Collegian and inspiring peers, Bettis has not stopped chasing her teenage dream of being a professional journalist. Between working with her section editors, coordinating news stories between Rocky Mountain Student Media departments and coaching new reporters, Bettis gets to live that dream every day. When she’s not in the newsroom or almost falling asleep in class, you can find Bettis working in the Durrell Marketplace and Café or outside gazing at the beauty that is our campus (and running inside when bees are nearby). This year, Bettis’ goals for The Collegian include continuing its trajectory as a unique alt-weekly newspaper, documenting the institutional memory of the paper to benefit students in years to come and fostering a sense of community and growth both inside the newsroom and through The Collegian’s published work. Bettis would like to encourage anyone with story ideas, suggestions, questions, concerns or comments to reach out to her at editor@collegian.com.

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