Editor’s Note: This article is part of The Collegian’s 2024 ASCSU elections coverage. Search 2024 ASCSU elections on collegian.com to see complete coverage of all other candidates.
With campaigns for the Associated Students of Colorado State University elections for the 2024-25 academic year fully underway, The Collegian sat down with speaker of the senate candidate Hayden Taylor to discuss his background, campaign platforms and future plans if elected.
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Taylor is a sophomore studying political science and legal studies. Taylor serves as the current internal affairs committee chair in the senate.
Background, ASCSU experience, qualifications
Taylor: I’ve been involved in ASCSU now (for) two years, and I love it; it’s a lot of fun. … I love the senate; we get to do a lot of … funding and stuff, … which is always kind of cool to see. It’s fun to be able to see how student fees get spent and have a bit of a voice in that, too. I’ve been a committee chair this year, which is like a leadership position within the senate, which is kind of giving me a bit of a taste of how to do the job (of the speaker) because it’s kind of like doing that on a mini scale.
Meet all of the candidates who hope to represent CSU students in ASCSU next year.
Campaign platform, campus issues, priorities
Taylor: (Advocacy is) the biggest focus of my campaign because … how we make change is by being the voice of what students want to see. Advocacy looks like just being in touch with students and what they want.
ASCSU has had issues with that in the past, with being out of touch, … (and) it’s about being in touch with what people want to see and then being able to communicate that to people who can actually make those changes, and especially in an elected position, that gives you credibility.
I think that you need to be able to make some of those changes happen. Anybody can go and talk to anybody about anything. But if you have the votes of the students, then that means something. It’s about getting people involved, mostly being able to have communication with clubs and student organizations and just day-to-day students.
Knowing the issues that we face, one of the big ones I know of is the cost. The cost of tuition and housing, I think, is too high. I know people who don’t come to CSU anymore because of the cost of it. And that’s an issue, you know — we shouldn’t be forcing people out of college. But I think that if you can know some of those issues and be able to communicate that to the people who can have changes with that, we’ll be able to do that.
It costs simply too much to get a college education. And it costs too much with housing as well. ASCSU has had a big focus in the past on U+2 with the city, which is good; we should be focusing on that. But it costs too much to live on campus, too. I’m living beyond my budget living on campus now. And I know I’m not alone in that. So being able to get CSU to a place that’s financially accessible to people, I think, would be a big focus of mine.
ASCSU/student relationship, ASCSU future goals
Taylor: A lot of people on campus don’t know what ASCSU is and what we do. So being able to get that message out and to get people involved would be huge. We have some involvement, but like we’ve kind of seen, ASCSU has, at times, (been) out of touch. And so being able to get people involved in getting us focused on issues that impact the day-to-day lives of students on campus is, like, the ultimate goal of mine.
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Being able to get social media active and going again so that people can be connected with us would be huge. I think going to classes and tabling on The Plaza (and) going to clubs and student organizations to get that input (is important). And that’s all definitely things I’ll be planning to do if I’m elected.
I think last time, I just didn’t know much about the elections and just what that looks like and how to do a campaign effectively — even though the ultimate vision, I think, is the same because that’s something I’m passionate about. I think it’s just changing how I go about that to be able to connect with people and get them involved and get them voting.
Reach Allie Seibel and Aubree Miller at news@collegian.com or on Twitter @CSUCollegian.
