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Show ADMINISTRATION 4 Members of the 2017-20- 18 ASW student board sit with President Steve Morgan for their first the organization hopes to work more closely with students in official 8 STUDENT GOVERNMENT meeting after elections. Vice President Sabi Lowder (front right) said the upcoming year. New ASW student board members emphasize TRANSPARENCY AND STUDENT INPUT MOVING FORWARD ASW president? A: The one thing that has sort of been the cornerstone of my campaign has been continuity with change. So, Im going to take the role of ALEX BOISSONNAS STAFF REPORTER Westminster Colleges student body elected its new ASW officials for the 2017-201- 8 school year on March 3. officials prepare As the newly-electe- d for their upcoming terms, The Forum spoke to ASW President Benjamin Pok, Vice President Sabi Lowder, Events President Cassandra Yerkes, Clubs President Elaine Sheehan and Chief Justice Bex Kemp about their roles across campus and their goals for the next academic year. a president. The first time I was was. They said follow through and holding Q: What does the ASW president do? A: In addition to helping represent students on an internal level, the president also represents Westminster College on the state level by serving on the Utah Student Association, which comprises all student body presidents in the state of Utah. Every year, we push a bill through the state Legislature and we represent ourselves to the governors office as well. I also represent Westminster on a federal level to the federal government, especially to the White House through their office of civic engagement. Q; What motivated you to run for r elected, I sort of polled the students what their No. 1 frustration with leadership Benjamin Pok, president msr "w second-ye- ar acpeople countable. Especially because presidents tend to only have one year in office, it was hard to have real ' progress or hold people accountable. I said, Okay, this is the first time well have a freshman elected president, so maybe I could bring consistent and progressive leadership to student government. r Q: What specific issues and areas for improvement do you plan to work on or address? A: One thing that I started to do with last years executive cabinet and student board was to come up with a list of goals and priorities for ASW. Before, the branches sort of did their all own had thing. They their own -- which were goals, never really published or public. One thing I did on the student board was say, If we are to work towards a goal or numerous goals, we need to go in with a concerted effort. This year, Im going to go in targeting the issue of Westminster as a safe haven and increasing our diversity ef-- forts, whether that be increasing our finan- cial budget or changing the way we carry out our initiatives. Thats the main goal as I come in as president. Q: Is there anything you would like students to know about you moving forward? A: Im always open to consideration for other projects. A lot of people think that we have our agenda and we just work towards that, and thats really not the case especially this year, with President Trump being elected. When he became president, we were sort of caught in the middle of trying to figure out how to respond to things that were unjust and how to respond to discriminatory policies. So, we do have our agenda and we work very hard towards it, but we understand that as weeks and months go on there will always be issues that arise. Sabi Lowder, vice president Q: What does the ASW vice president do? A: Basically, the ASW vice president is there to support and represent students. Its sort of like the president, but Im also there to support the president and take over if they leave. Im also chief liaison to the alumni board, so that means that I go and I meet with alums. What Im hoping to do with my platform is to increase community involvement through alumni, connecting |