As presidential hopefuls T.J. Weber and Lucia Lopez begin to gear up their campaigns for the April 6-7 Associated Students of NMU (ASNMU) elections, several events are being held on campus to familiarize the NMU community with what the candidates for all ASNMU positions stand for and what they have to offer students if elected.
ASNMU is placing a candidate page on their Web site that gives a brief biography of each person running for all the positions in the upcoming elections. The organization is also sponsoring a candidate forum in the Starbucks lounge of the LRC on March 30 at 6 p.m. The event is designed to allow all candidates to present their platforms to students and take questions regarding their stance on issues from the student body.
Other upcoming events include an exclusively presidential debate on WNMU channel 13 and will be taped on Friday, March 27 and aired at a later date. The official vice-presidential debates will also be Wednesday, March 31 from 7-9 p.m. while the official presidential debates will be Thursday, April 1 from 7-9 p.m. Both events will be held in Jamrich 103.
ASNMU chair of the elections committee, Lakin Lanich, said that the presidential and vice-presidential debates were going to be held on different days due to time constraints and because the two positions are different jobs that have different responsibilities to uphold in ASNMU.
“(This format) gives the vice-presidential candidates their own time to express what they want to do at NMU separate from the president,” she said.
Lanich said that she hopes that this year’s new posters on campus that advertise the debates will encourage students who are not running for ASNMU office to participate in getting their voices heard by their potential student leaders.
“I really hope that students will come and participate in all these debates and that they feel welcome, while at the same time they ask questions and challenge the candidates,” Lanich said. “Last year we had a pretty low turnout for all of the (election) events, and I want people to come to these debates so the elections aren’t just a popularity contest.”
Presidential candidate Lucia Lopez, a junior electronic journalism major, said she is making an effort to hear what students care about the most by going around to student organizations such as the College Republicans, attending hall government meetings and getting together with different Greek chapters at NMU.
“We are spending a lot of time just getting out there and talking to students about what is important to them,” she said. “It’s one of the most important parts of our campaign.”
Lopez also plans to raise awareness about her campaign by making t-shirts, campaigning through Facebook and putting up posters throughout campus and local business such as bars and grocery stores.
“The student body has a lot of different parts and it’s important to reach out to everyone the best that we can,” she said. “We want to make sure we are advocating for [lots of different students].”
Presidential candidate T.J. Weber, junior marketing and economics double major, said that he was meeting with student organizations such as the College Libertarians, the College Democrats, the Greek counsel and attends hall government meetings to get new ideas from students about what they think ASNMU should be doing for them.
“The most important thing we can do is to go around to different groups on campus and hear what people have to say at their meetings,” he said. “A lot of the best ideas at ASNMU come from students. They are able to see things in their day to day life that we can address at ASNMU.”
In addition to attending these meetings, creating a Facebook group and putting up posters on campus and in bars, Weber is planning on having a student rights concert at one of the residence halls lobbies to raise support his campaign and educate students about their rights.
