Last Friday, HSU Associated Students announced the results of last week’s runoff election and named Iban Rodriguez as AS President and Kristy Eden as Student Affairs Vice President. AS held runoff elections because neither of the candidates received a majority vote in the initial election two weeks ago. Fewer than 230 students voted in the runoff election; 1,045 people voted in the initial elections.
Victor Reuther, the other candidate for president in the runoff election, lost by a margin of four votes.
Rodriguez took over as president during an AS Council meeting on Monday afternoon. When the Lumberjack spoke with him a few hours after the inauguration, Rodriguez was busy and could not say a lot about the particulars of the future of AS.
“Everything is really up in the air right now,” said Rodriguez. “I’m inheriting both the problems and the good things, so I’m just trying to deal with that.”
Reuther said, “It was devastating to go up to the AS office and look at the results. It was a small margin, but it’s still difficult for me to wrap my head around.”
In hindsight, Reuther said that he should have formed a coalition with Eden, as Rodriguez did with Aaron Guerrero, the other candidate for Student Affairs vice president. Despite the consideration of certain campaign strategies, Reuther believes there is more at stake for AS, an organization that seems ignored on campus, as evidenced by the low voter turnout in its elections.
“Realistically, we should be working on articulating the concerns of the student body to the administration,” said Reuther. “AS needs to become more integral to the campus and play a pivotal role in the students’ lives, instead of hanging around at the margins.”
Duties of an AS president include allocating fees to campus clubs and organizations and meeting with administrators like President Rollin Richmond and Vice President of Student Affairs Steve Butler to discuss budgets and student concerns.
In a bid to make AS relevant to students, Rodriguez intends to enact a strict open-door policy and to keep students informed of AS proceedings and campus issues by reinstating a public relations position.
“I’m going to try to get out there and meet with students,” said Rodriguez. “Talking to people and getting them involved is really important.”
Brandon Chapin, the previous AS President, is confident in Rodriguez’s abilities and wishes him the best of luck in the upcoming year.
Despite his tough loss, Reuther believes the election was a great learning process. While campaigning for president, he heard many students and their primary concerns with HSU. Reuther said, “Any student has the potential to be influential, regardless of a title.”
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