Although the final elections for the Associated Students of the University of Utah are not until April, they are causing changes to ASUU’s leadership already.
Senior Class President AnnMarie Allen and Public Relations Director Colter Hammer plan to run for president and vice president of ASUU. Due to elections policy, they need to resign from their offices before they file as candidates. The filing deadline is Friday, Jan. 11.
Hammer has already resigned, and Kristina Kreutzer, a junior majoring in civil engineering, will replace him.
“Kristina was very involved in the Public Relations Office before Colter resigned,” ASUU President Ben Lowe said. “We knew she’d be able to do a good job transitioning.”
As president, Lowe must make all appointments.
Kreutzer has also been involved with ASUU through a leadership class she was in last year and from working on last year’s Innovation election campaign.
“I’m excited, I hope we can make some changes,” Kreutzer said. “I hope we can make more progress. I think it’s going to be a lot of work.”
Kreutzer also works at a law firm and at a tutoring center.
“She’s a dynamic individual, she works really hard at doing things most people wouldn’t want to do,” Hammer said. According to Hammer, Kreutzer glued all of the paper cars to popsicle sticks used during ASUU’s parking campaign.
“Nobody likes gluing cars to popsicle sticks,” Hammer said. “She did it and never complained.”
Allen has not officially resigned, and Lowe has not appointed a new senior class president. According to Lowe, replacing Allen was not a priority during the break. He is not sure what the specific procedure for replacing elected officers is. Lowe hopes to choose a replacement within a week.
“We’re obviously working on deciding who’s going to be the next senior class president,” Lowe said. “She really did do a great job.”
Neither Allen nor Hammer anticipated running for president and vice president when they took office last May. It was not until three months ago that they discussed running as a possibility.
“I think there are a lot of improvements that can be made and that Colter and I can do,” Allen said. She said her experience in ASUU would help her administration get off to a good start without spending time to familiarize themselves with the organization.
“It’s with a heavy heart that I go,” Allen said. “There’s a lot of things that I wish I could do. I hope it all gets done the way I could have done it, but I’m not perfect either. Hopefully I’ve prepared the way.”
Development Office Director Justin Barker also resigned from his position during the break, because he needed to earn a better income.
Lowe appointed Pete Johnson, a junior majoring in applied physics, to replace Barker.
“I’m really not extremely qualified, they just picked me,” Johnson said. However, Johnson has participated in off-campus fund-raisers before, including raising money to provide turkeys to poor people.
“Pete has a lot of skills,” Lowe said. “He has an excellent demeanor, he’s professional, well-organized, draws a lot of people in. He’s just a very able individual.”
The Development Office is new this year and was established to raise money for student activities. It works closely with the U Development Office.
“It’s a new office, we’re just trying to establish it and figure out what we’re doing for ASUU and for the students,” Johnson said. “It was created because there was a huge opportunity. [There are] lots of corporations that want to donate money, they don’t really have a channel to do it.”
Last semester most of the energies of the Development Office were devoted to defining its role within ASUU.
“We’re kind of to the point that we can start using the knowledge that they got,” Johnson said.