Registration will be open until Monday for candidates running for a position within the Associated Students of Oregon State University, OSU’s student government, with voting beginning Feb. 19.
“It’s a great experience to show your passion for student advocacy,” said Dakota Canzano, ASOSU’s vice president. “If you really care about students and want to advocate for them and mental health, or sustainability, you get a really cool opportunity to get to meet with the administration about that.”
As vice president, Canzano, a third year student at OSU, oversees the ASOSU senate and helps facilitate the meetings. She also sits on the Recreational Sports Advisory Board, where she helps plan different events and works internally within different organizations.
This term for the ASOSU positions goes from June 1, 2024 to June 1, 2025. Any student who is enrolled in at least one credit at OSU, and is eligible to work for the university, is able to run for any position. All positions are paid either hourly or salary, depending on the position.
“We try to make it as accessible as possible,” Canzano said. “To make sure that we get a wide variety of candidates that students can feel represented by.”
Canzano’s position will be up for re-election on this year’s upcoming ballot. Candidate registration opened on Dec. 7 and will close on Feb. 5. There are currently five tickets for president and vice president. The campaign period will begin on Jan. 29, and will end on March 1, along with the ballot. For all candidate information, visit https://asosu.oregonstate.edu/student-gov/elections
Noa Stoll is the president pro tempore in the ASOSU Senate, and also a fourth year student studying environmental science at OSU. Within her position, she works very closely with Canzano, helping to facilitate senators and provide them with resources and support for anything they need.
Stoll has served in this position for two terms, but her position will be open for this upcoming election. Stoll spoke on what advice she has for those running.
“Don’t be scared,” Stoll said. “I feel like ASOSU seems a lot more complicated than it is, and people think that because they don’t know a lot about what our process is or what it means to be in ASOSU, that they might not feel comfortable running. But they definitely should because being in ASOSU, it’s so fun.”
Canzano spoke on how a huge part of ASOSU is advocating for students and their needs. Some examples of what the current team has advocated for include more gender-neutral bathrooms coming on campus, biweekly paychecks and longer hours at the Dixon Recreation Center.
A lot of the work that ASOSU does and the positions they have go on behind the scenes. A lot of internal work will never be seen by the students, but instead the results.
Every term Canzano will go and meet with the university president and discuss what the students ask for. Some conversations range from being about international student health, to the realignment of the PAC-12 conference.
“ASOSU does have a voice in things,” Stoll said. “Especially this year we’re really trying to create relationships with admin and people who are in charge of running all the departments on campus to really increase our voice. We do have a lot of influence, a pretty good voice and a seat at the table. ”
On Feb. 19 when the ballot opens, students are able to vote straight from their phone. There will be a direct link sent to their school inbox, as well as a potential Canvas announcement to everyone.
