During a virtual forum hosted by The Daily Utah Chronicle on Monday, the VanderToolen ticket answered questions and discussed their campaign for the ASUU presidency. The forum was hosted through Zoom and is available on YouTube for those who were unable to attend live.

The ASUU 2022 presidential candidates are Taylor VanderToolen for president, Benvin Lozada for vice president of university relations and Ashlee Roberts for vice president of student relations — they are running unopposed.

The candidates emphasized the importance of building bridges between students and administration, getting students more involved on campus and their commitment to addressing campus safety.

“ASUU has a great power to be able to represent students and be able to take the issues students are passionate about and take them to the administration,” VanderToolen said.

According to VanderToolen, his ticket has made it a priority to meet with various student and university organizations to hear students’ concerns before the election.

Some of the organizations they met with include the Student Alumni Board and It’s On Us, and they have plans to meet with SafeU, The McCluskey Center and more.

Lozada discussed the concept of “building bridges,” meaning opening communication channels for students to talk with student organizations and the university. He added he sees ASUU as the “liaison” between the student body and administration.

Roberts said they hope to make communication more accessible, so everyone at the university is on the same page.

“Everybody wants the same thing for the U, for it to be safe, inclusive and just have an overall great student experience,” Roberts said.

When discussing domestic violence issues, Lozada said these incidents are becoming too common in the campus community, negatively impacting the college experience for students.

Last Friday, Zhifan Dong, an international U student, died in a domestic-violence related homicide and a 26-year-old U student was arrested for his involvement.

“We believe it is the fundamental right of every student who comes on this campus to be guaranteed a safe campus,” Lozada said.

Lozada said the ticket is dedicated to taking Lauren’s promise, meaning they will believe someone if they say they are being threatened.

VanderToolen said if elected an immediate change students can see is some restructuring of ASUU to fill gaps in the assembly and senate due to lack of candidates for open positions.

He shared they want to open up these positions to different college student councils and student leadership and hope to increase student involvement this way.

Additionally, VanderToolen said they are looking into distributing roles within the executive branch to create 12 boards instead of only 11 and partner with different student organizations.

“What we ask is that students get involved in these different resources and these different organizations within the executive cabinet and the legislative cabinet in order to represent and empower the respective college,” VanderToolen said.

VanderToolen also said he is disheartened to see so few students running for student government and was surprised to be running unopposed.

Roberts said they hope to hear feedback from the student body to better represent the campus community emphasizing their job is to speak for the students.

Voting for ASUU elections will begin Feb. 22 at 7 a.m. MST and conclude on Feb. 25 at 5 p.m.

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