Shavonne Rogers
Staff Writer
Brooke Grasso
Editor in Chief
Elmeera Nosrati and Joshua Bay are the newly elected president and vice president of the Associated Students of University of La Verne for the 2017-2018 school year.
Nosrati, a sophomore business administration major and Bay, a sophomore public relations major, told each other that they would run as a team when they met freshman year. They kept their promise.
“We both were the individuals that never really got involved and were quiet,” Nosrati said. “We both decided that we wanted to change that perspective by better representing these individuals who feel that they do not have a voice.”
They both remember feeling like their voice did not matter and now they are taking this leadership opportunity to encourage students to speak about change on campus.
The Nosrati-Bay campaign slogan was “It is time for a breath of fresh A.I.R.” with the acronym standing for accountability, inclusivity and realness.
Accountability reflects their hopes to keep administration and ASULV accountable to serving the students. To maintain that they are planning to hold more deans forums and town halls and implement office hours for deans and other administration.
For inclusivity they would like to host more multicultural events. With the rise of events including the Black Lives Matters movement and the women’s march, they hope to foster this growth. This would include the push for a multicultural group that celebrates various cultures year round.
“We don’t just want to celebrate our African American students in February, we should be celebrating all cultures on our campus all the time,” Bay said.
When it comes to realness, they want to show transparency so students can be aware of what ASULV is doing on campus.
“We want to show the community what we are doing and that we are approachable people that if you have a problem, you can always come to us,” Bay said.
They hope students will reach out to them more, including through social media and email so they can be as accessible as possible.
As honors students, they are also hoping to improve the honor program’s class accessibility and program experience.
“There are many times where we feel like it is used as a marketing tool, then once you actually see what you’re getting out if it, it feels like another minor rather than something that should compliment your experience,” Bay said.
Angie Anderson, associate director of student life said Nosrati and Bay are qualified for the positions of president and vice president.
“They both have ASULV experience. They have been very involved throughout the year with making changes and really listening to students. They are very passionate about what they are doing. I think they are going to make a great team,” Anderson said.
During the 2016-2017 school year, Bay was ASULV’s vice president.
Moving on to higher leadership positions in 2017-2018, Nosrati will be the president and Bay will be executive vice president.
Bay and Nosrati bring the best out of each other and outside of their working relationship they are friends.
“We instantly clicked. I am a commuter and she was the first person to open up her dorm to me if I ever wanted to hang out which really jump started our friendship,” Bay said. “I am very appreciative of her loyalty.”
“I appreciate her confidence. Even when she doesn’t have her act together, she has her act together and that is something that just inspires me.”
Nosrati said Bay inspires her to be better a leader on campus.
“Josh is someone who pushes me to grow and I have seen him grow as well and we have been through it all together,” Nosrati said. “Josh’s morals and values really represent mine. I couldn’t think of a person more qualified to run.”
Shavonne Rogers can be reached at shavonne.rogers@laverne.edu.
Brooke Grasso can be reached at brooke.grasso@laverne.edu.
