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ASFLC presidential and senate elections: April 4, 5, and 6
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Students can vote in the student union with a valid FLC ID or on the FLC website.
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Candidates Lauren Watson and Jaclyn Drummond have had experience with students and leadership roles on campus.
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Watson and Drummond are the most concerned with the students being able to come to ASFLC president and vice president for their concerns over Fort Lewis College.
The Associated Students of Fort Lewis College is holding presidential elections on April 4-6, 2016. There are also available seats on senate, and students can vote on this issue, too.
Students can vote in the student union with a valid student ID as well as on any on-campus computer.
The ASFLC presidential team acts as an advocate on behalf of the students, and they work with administration, the board of trustees and faculty.
The Candidates: Team Watson and Drummond
Entering the Race:
What made you guys want to run for president and vice president?
For Watson, she decided to run for president when she heard Lindley Gallegos, the current ASFLC president, give a speech at the freshman orientation this fall, she said.
“I was sitting in the stands as an residential assistant and it just felt like it was a role that I could take on this next year and I was inspired to step up,” Watson said.
For Drummond, she wanted to be a senator last year, but struggled with putting all of the pieces together, she said.
Commitment and Leadership Roles:
Watson, who is running for president, has been a resident assistant for 2 years, she said.
This year she was promoted to a senior resident assistant within the student housing and conference services department, Watson said.
“So I’ve been an advocate for residents, I’ve been an advocate for my fellow staff members, I’ve been a leader amongst the department as far as my involvement,” she said.
For Watson's second year on the residence directors selection committee, she has been in charge of hiring potential supervisors, she said.
Drummond, who is running for vice president, is a member of the senior orientation staff, which are the four people that work with Patrick Fredricks and Elizabeth Calagias to like create orientation, she said.
“It’s kind of a step up from being an orientation leader and a big leadership role for the campus because you have to put it all together,” Drummond said.
She is also a double major in technical theatre and a stage manager in her department, which is the person that does all the paperwork, gets the team together and kind of is the leader throughout the entire show, she said.
Qualifications:
“I think it’s my experience advocating for residents,” Watson said. “I know the president is more the face of the student body and I feel as though I am an affable leader.”
In Drummond’s past she was really involved with student government in her high school, she said.
She also attend the CHSAA summer camp every year as a camp counselor for all of the other Colorado high schools, Drummond said.
The Issues:
For Watson communication between the student leaders and students is one of the most important issues, she said.
“I think every issue boils down to communication because it can all be solved through voicing your concerns,” she said.
One of the bigger problems that Drummond sees in the FLC community is when someone has an issue, they do not know who to go to, or they do not see student government as an avenue for them to voice their dilemma, she said.
“There’s lots of little problems that add up to overall people not being satisfied with the community and the atmosphere at Fort Lewis College,” she said. “So if we can take each of those problems head on, I think that will overall solve a lot of problems.”
Working with Administration:
“The first step again is communicating with the students and hearing their concerns,” Watson said.
Then there are policies and protocols to follow on how to address their concerns with administration, she said.
Being president would allow Watson to sit in on the board of trustees meetings, giving her an opportunity to voice concerns there, she said.
An idea Watson and Drummond are borrowing from another institution is a student concern forum that would happen once a semester, or year depending on the demand, where students can voice their concerns, she said.
Then once the concerns are addressed, the student concern forum would print them on poster and post them to where the student body can see them, Watson said.
“I think that would be a good way for both us as executives and all the senators to communicate more effectively with the administration,” she said.
Working as a Team:
It is important, when voting, to acknowledge that there are multiple candidates, who have different platforms that they are running on, Drummond said.
“I think that’s what Lauren and I have,” she said. “We have a lot of heart and a lot of passion for this institution. And I know it’s easy for a lot of people to say that, but I think, truly, that we care so much about individual people and individual groups and making this school great and making our student government known.”
Watson and Drummond do not have the experience that the other candidates have, but they also think that they both have outside experience working very closely with students, Watson said.
“So even though we haven’t had experience on the table, we have experience talking with students and representing them and advocating for them, and I think that that’s just as important,” she said.