Jocelyn Arceo
Managing Editor
Junior social science major Sarah Morales has been elected Associated Students of the University of La Verne president for the 2020-2021 academic year, and sophomore information technology major Michael Rodriguez has been elected executive vice president.
Destiny Dominguez is the new transfer student senator while Mike Xu is the new international student senator.
Senators for the College of Business and Public Management are Alex Kechichian and Amber Kushwaha, while the senators for the College of Arts and Sciences are Zulee Escobar and Nicholas Montecino. Senators at large are Lauren Cassidy, Jorge Cortez, Lyss Garcia, Ryan Konrad, Mackay MorganArmstrong and Michael Nassar.
Morales ran against Nicholas Arce for president, while Rodriguez ran against Graham Gilles for executive vice president. Dominguez ran against Lauren Glacy for the position of transfer student senator.
Morales said she is honored to have won her position and plans on increasing collaboration efforts across campus to create a more effective communication system at the University with the help of the rest of ASULV.
“All of my efforts will go toward ensuring that student concerns and suggestions are being heard and communicated to the governing bodies as clearly, honestly and persistently as possible,” Morales said.
She said that she worked with Rodriguez through collaborative efforts to showcase their independent but complimentary passions during their campaign. Rodriguez said they share a lot in common when it comes to what they both have in mind for ASULV.
“Moving forward, especially during this pandemic and where it might lead, there is an opportunity for change on campus and I’m very excited for the way I get to participate in enacting that change,” Morales said.
Although many aspects of the upcoming academic school year remain uncertain, Rodriguez emphasized his full faith in the incoming ASULV senate and executive board to properly represent the student body and their needs.
“I’m looking forward to emphasizing transparency and accountability of ASULV to the student body,” Rodriguez said. “Making sure voices that need to be heard are amplified while maintaining a commitment to exploring new changes that support students.”
This year’s campaign and election were done entirely online, which proved to be difficult when it came to showcasing various aspects of each candidate such as leadership potential and student representation, Rodriguez said.
“Nonetheless, we focused all of our efforts to utilize the resources we had and put all we had into the race,” Rodriguez said.
Kechichian, freshman business administration major, is one of the two new CBPM senators who said he ran because he wants to liven up the University’s campus.
“I hope to bring change to ASULV and create more on-campus activities that students advocate for,” Kechichian said.
Voting opened virtually through Campus Labs April 14 at 8 a.m. and closed April 16 at 2 p.m., with the results announced shortly thereafter through the ASULV Instagram account, @asulv_laverne.
Jocelyn Arceo can be reached at jocelyn.arceo@laverne.edu.
