by Cherryl F. Cercado
Editorial Assistant
With an uncontested election and low student participation, Tracey Landisi and Dan Lougheed, sophomores, were elected to serve as Associated Student Federation (ASF) Forum president and vice-president, respectively, for the 1996-97 school year.
Only 177 votes were cast by the entire student body for the ASF executive board.
“I think they’ll make a good team,” said Christina Tejeda, current vice president. “They’re positive and full of energy and they’ll make a big difference in ASF.”
Junior Scott Mac Kay was also re-elected as student representative to the Board of Trustees.
“I’d like to see a lot more enthusiasm, more than one candidate running for each position, more publicity, more campaigning and more voter turn-out,” said Landisi. “One hundred and seventy votes just doesn’t work for me on a campus of 1,100 undergraduates.”
Landisi and Lougheed both cited the need for changes within ASF as their reasons for taking the positions.
“I’ve been on it for two years and I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t,” said Landisi. “I’d like to be able to lead the Forum that makes those changes.”
Lougheed, who has been part of ASF for a year as a Forum member, feels that he can offer organization as well as other improvements.
“I want to, generally, make ASF a better organization,” said Lougheed. “The problem with student government is that, often times, we aren’t taken seriously.”
Landisi agrees with Lougheed.
“It’s partly because we’re students,” she said. “I’d like to see us become more of a student advocacy group and go after what students really need and want.”
Landisi said that changes are needed in the constitution concerning election procedures, allocation of funds to organizations on campus and the focal points of ASF.
Landisi is hopeful that the guidelines for allocating money to organizations on campus is made clear by the end of this semester or at the latest, the beginning of next fall.
“We’re a little inconsistent and disorganized,” said Landisi of how ASF allocates funds. “I don’t think that the clubs, organizations or departments that we allocate money to really know how the process works. We want to make it clear, so there is no animosity toward ASF.”
Another goal that Landisi and Lougheed hope to achieve is to make the Forum strong and representative of the entire student body.
“Sometimes we’re not really reflective of the student body as a whole,” he said. “In some of the stuff that we plan, ASF isn’t always effective because we’ve alienated a certain part of the campus. We really need to become more of a political body.
“The people that join ASF, that are in ASF, are usually the people that have gone to the events and know what ASF does.”
Both Landisi and Lougheed are currently waiting to see who will comprise next year’s Forum and plan to organize a successful summer retreat.
“Some of my goals would be to have a full Forum to start off the year with, to keep that Forum and not have to drop people because they either can’t or won’t do the job,” said Landisi.
Applications for Forum positions are due May 2 in the ASF Office in the Student Center.
Cherryl F. Cercado
