CEUSA candidates present platforms

This archived article was written by: Kellie Henderson

On March 3, candidates for 2009-10 CEUSA leaders spoke to students, presenting ideas and answering questions, just a few weeks before official elections. The CEUSA-hopefuls spoke mainly of building the community, recruiting students and getting others involved.
CEUSA president aspirant Rachel Ryan works as an ambassador and is running on the platform “make it stick” in reference to the positive reform that current CEUSA president Andrew Hardman implemented this school year.
Wilford Woodruff, also running for CEUSA president, presented his motto, “dependability that ‘Will’ always be there,” and introduced himself as a native to Price with an understanding of the surrounding community.
Also an ambassador, Whitney Oliver’s motto- “creating a community”- exentuated one of CEU’s greatest assets. She explains, “I’ve worked as an ambassador for CEU and one of our biggest recruitment tools is that we pride ourselves that we are from a small community … the professors here know us and … you will make, meet, and earn life long friends because everybody gets along and talks and when you’re in a small community … you know everybody.”
Timothy Withers, a new face to CEU leadership, plans to utilize his fun-loving personality as vice president of activities through planning events that students enjoy. David Cox, current vice president of activities, would like to continue his work next year with his motto “it only gets better from here.”
The third candidate for vice president of activities was Cole Unsworth, who wants to have fun in the upcoming year. “If we want to continue the motto of ‘my CEU’ I would encourage everyone to have fun and make next year your CEU,” he stated.
The first question to the candidates from the audience was, “How could CEU be better?” Ryan responded, “CEU prides itself on making sure that everyone knows that we are a tight commuiny, that everyone is really involved in the school and I think that is something that could be improved by getting the students involved.
“Also, I think another big improvement for the college would be getting our name out in the community more around Price and Salt Lake. I think that we have so much to offer that when students come and once their parents come down they absolutely fall in love with what we have here … Another big improvement that I’ve heard the student’s talking about is maintenance on campus. I would really like to work on how we can better that situation. So those are just a few ideas and there’s plenty more.”
Woodruff brought his perspective as the current CEUSA student advocate, “I would say … equal representation. Sometimes I feel like representation comes from certain groups and other groups are not mentioned as much.” He also put an emphasis on retaining students by creating a welcoming atmosphere.
Oliver used her favorite quote, “Attention to detail makes a more perfect whole,” as an example of the changes she would implement, including inviting individuals ot activities.
Withers focused on appealing to the student body, “One of the comments that I hear … is that there’s not enough stuff to do, they’re always bored. So what I would try to get them to do is to get them to socialize more … I would do my best to try and find the best activities for people … ”
In response to the question, Cox quizzed the audience, “How many people knew that they could go into the student government office at any time and watch tv, play xbox, listen to music and get on computers?” In order to increase awareness about this opportunity, he proposed changing students views of CEUSA.
Unsworth differed from the other candidates, focusing on keeping CEU small and increasing it’s appeal by making it more prestigious. “I would like this to be a place where people come because it’s a nice place to be, not because it’s a low expense school or because it’s easy to get accepted to come here; because we have fun here.”
The next question emphasized the importance of reaching out to non-traditional students and was directed to the presidential candidates. As a non-traditional student herself, Ryan commended the community of Price for welcoming her. She also indicated a need to advertise our family-friendly environment to the outside community.
Wilford again emphasized representation. “A lot of times people are not represented because they don’t know how to be represented. I think if there was a way for them to be able to know that they could get their voices heard, tknow what they say is actually going to be considered, actually going to be talked about and it is going to produce a change so that way it could be a more open environment, a more welcome environment … doing what can be done, especially getting a non-traditional student perspective.”
When asked about their feelings on the proposed four-day academic week, the candidates were generally against the idea. While recognizing it’s appeal to students, they listed the damaging effect it would have on the community if students went home every weekend. Ryan argued, “I think it’s setting people up for a false realization because not everyone is going to go into a work environment that’s only four days a week. It may sound good now, but later on when you have to go to work and you have to work five days your mental stability of only being in school four days a week is going to kind mess things up a little bit.”
Wilford recognized its benefits to non traditional students and Unsworth supported the proposal, provided the day off was in the middle of the week.
Ryan and Wilford responded to an inquiry about the CEUSA president’s opportunity to sit on the board of trustees and to apply to be the head student on the board of regents. Both emphasized their love for the college and their commitment to promoting the college to the prestigious boards.
The candidates will answer more questions in traditional debate style at noon, Mar. 24 in the student center. Elections will be held Mar. 24-26.