Campaigning under the slogan “Forever strong, forever proud, forever unified,” Lys Taddei and Weston Schroeder hope to increase sustainability, improve cultural education and representation and bring back a sense of pride to Colorado State University.
Lys Taddei, presidential candidate
Taddei is a second-year majoring in interior architecture and design. As a freshman, Taddei worked with Blake Alfred, the speaker of the senate at the time, allowing her to learn about how ASCSU works behind the scenes.
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Taddei also has a wealth of volunteer experience. Taddei has volunteered over 250 hours at various organizations, including a food bank in Sonoma County, California. She also organized a heart walk in honor of a boy who died from heart disease and got certified to teach an art class of 56 kids.
“All these experiences helped me gain knowledge of how to proactively conduct oneself in varying situations,” Taddei said. “My involvement with organizations and businesses in the past has taught me a great deal of organization, respect, class, leadership and professionalism.”
Taddei said she has “a passion unlike anyone else’s.” She explained that she loves working for people, seeking to make a difference wherever she can.
Weston Schroeder, vice presidential candidate
Schroeder is a second-year student majoring in political science and minoring in legal studies. During his freshman year, Schroeder was introduced to ASCSU through learning about the senator positions.
Schroeder is the housing manager of his fraternity, Sigma Nu. Schroeder said he knows a lot of people on campus through Sigma Nu because of going out and talking to people during his freshman year. Additionally, a lot of people from his hometown, Highlands Ranch, Colorado, attend CSU.
He hopes to work with these groups if elected.
Schroeder also spoke about how he can create abstract ideas.
“That’s kind of the beauty of crazy ideas,” Schroeder said. “You get to think of really creative ways to figure it out.”
Schroeder worked on a student leadership team in high school and learned tools on how to “elevate the student’s experience and the student engagement.”
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Schroeder said that he used resources including talking to people from his team and others on the student leadership team about engaging the student audience. He thinks applying this knowledge into the upcoming administration “would be very crucial.”
Their platform
One of the main facets of their platform focuses on the resilience of the CSU community and how they can continue to build CSU’s resilience through sustainability and smarter spending habits. Taddei said the second and third floor of the Morgan Library do not need to be lit over breaks.
“With the money we would be saving from increased smart energy habits, we could allocate these funds to furthering sustainability at CSU as well as allotting a certain percentage of funds back to students,” Taddei said.
Additionally, their campaign aims to add more water bottle filling stations throughout campus.
The duo also seeks to increase the number of trash cans around campus with the growth of personal protective equipment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They also hope to work with the City of Fort Collins and administration to explore installing solar on top of campus buildings.
“Something that kind of ties along with the sustainability is making sure that each classroom has the recording capabilities, especially now that we have a much more online format of learning,” Schroeder said.
The platform also centers around the lack of cultural education and representation on campus. Taddei and Schroeder intend to create a unified space with all the cultural centers while “making cultural education less taboo for students,” Taddei said.
Schroeder said they will implement this goal by going to the cultural centers, speaking to members and making sure that they feel everything is being genuinely represented.
“This fall, it is our time to come back stronger, prouder and more unified than we’ve ever been,” Taddei said.
The unity aspect of Taddei and Schroeder’s platform focuses on student retention rates and campus culture. The two wish to bring Ram pride back through football games and tailgates, keeping COVID-19 precautions in mind.
“Especially being that our school has been infringed by COVID(-19), it is time to come back and to come back strong, and I have the strength myself and the energy to really head that,” Taddei said.
Piper Russell can be reached at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @PiperRussell10.
