Last Thursday, in the second debate of the 2025 ASUU elections, the Singh, ABC and Rose tickets faced off on issues like campus life, accountability and campaign promises.
The Singh ticket is led by presidential candidate Sunny Singh. Singh currently serves as the assembly treasurer and a representative of the College of Humanities. Prior to that, he served as the associate director of finance under the O’Leary administration.
Singh is joined by running mates Olivia Saenz as the vice president of university relations and Elle Williams as the vice president of student relations.
The ABC ticket has Kefa Abakuki as the presidential candidate. Abakuki is currently working as a student governance assistant for ASUU, a position that helps advise student government members.
Abakuki is joined by Campbell Brown as the vice president of university relations and Cameryn Coffey as the vice president of student relations.
The Rose ticket is headed by Alex Rose as the presidential candidate. Right now, Rose is serving as a senator for the College of Undergraduate Studies, the first time the program has been represented in the Senate.
Maddie Dahl is running with Rose as the vice president of university relations and Auzja Morse as the vice president of student relations.
Housing
“For us to improve housing accommodations on campus is ultimately to work with President Randall,” Rose said.
He said that working with U President Taylor Randall as more on-campus housing is constructed will create an opportunity to account for students’ needs. He also suggested exploring ways to open more scholarships.
Singh echoed a similar thought, arguing that thanks to the U’s Impact 2030 and Physical Development Plan, housing shortages will likely not be a problem. Instead, he said affordability would be the issue and that he’d work with private foundations to create more scholarships to address this.
Abakuki agreed that housing affordability is the biggest concern regarding on-campus living. He said he’d work with the Board of Trustees and HRE to find solutions.
Student Organizations and Campus Culture
All tickets emphasized their commitment to supporting student organizations.
The Singh ticket, for example, plans to reorganize ASUU funding to free up $600,000 for student organizations. Rose said that increasing funding for student organizations to hold more events could also help students’ mental health and create more community on campus.
Abakuki said the ABC ticket hopes to help fund student organizations that advocate for resources the U lost after HB261 last year.
“With House Bill 261, we banned DEI through the U but did not ban DEI through student-led initiatives,” he said. “We can have a way for the resources to still be there and for students to have DEI resources and have DEI programming, but it will have to be student-led.”
The candidates were asked about President Donald Trump’s calls to cancel student visas for people who have participated in pro-Palestine protests.
Abakuki said he wants to ensure students are aware of their rights and procedures when it comes to deportation. Singh made similar comments and said he’d make sure ASUU is supporting student organizations that plan lawful protests without becoming involved in the protests themselves.
Rose felt similarly.
“We want students to feel protected, feel like they’re at home here and to have their rights there,” he said.
Candidates were also asked how they would address disagreements between different faith and political groups on campus. Last year, Mecha held several protests against events hosted by YAF, or Young Americans for Freedom. The demonstrations led to Mecha’s status as a sponsored student organization being revoked.
Abakuki and Rose said they’d both hope to foster open dialogue between groups. Abakuki said he’d work to make sure everyone could find a solution to disagreements that everyone is comfortable with.
“I’d love to organize events here on campus that works [with] ImpactSLC or other interagency groups, just to have this open dialog with other students on campus,” Rose said.
Singh said he’d direct different ASUU boards to “target students that have a specific identity or ethnicity that is generally affected by world events that are currently happening so that they feel supported, and also so that we can be more efficient with our budget.”
“Let’s be honest here, world events sometimes happen arbitrarily, and we cannot predict what’s happening,” he said. “If you try to spread your resources out with the general student population, you might not end up helping anyone enough. So directing help is something that’s very important.”
Transparency and Accountability
Candidates were also asked a number of questions on how they’d keep ASUU transparent and accessible.
The ABC ticket has said they would organize town halls.
“We want students to be able to come to us, tell us the problems they’re facing and be able to honestly just ask us what we’re doing to help those problems,” Abakuki said.
He said he hopes regular meetings with students will help keep ASUU accountable. If elected, he’d also release monthly reports detailing ASUU spending and legislation.
“For us, accountability always starts with transparency and communication,” Rose said.
He detailed plans for an executive cabinet member to be in the ASUU office, located in the A. Ray Olpin Student Union, as often as possible so students can drop by as available.
Rose also said that if a student isn’t meeting the expectations of a position they occupy in ASUU, he hopes to find another place in student government that is a better fit for that student.
He also addressed impeachment proceedings that occurred in the senate last semester, which ultimately resulted in a senator’s resignation.
“To be honest, looking back at action here, something that was very helpful for the senate, because it brought us all to a higher standard as senators,” He said. “So, being able to have an impeachment process is honestly important, as it raises the bar for every agency a legislative member.”
Singh also discussed the role of impeachment in ASUU.
“It becomes a little tricky because I, myself, am an assembly representative, and I cannot be fired and it’s very hard to impeach someone,” he said. “I don’t encourage impeaching people, neither do I encourage firing people. But the fact of the matter is that, as of right now, there’s not a lot of accountability built into the legislative branches.”
He admitted he doesn’t know what the solution to accountability issues would be, but it’s not frequently firing or impeaching people.
Campaign Promises
Each ticket has made a number of promises throughout their campaigns, and they were asked how they plan to keep those promises.
One goal of the Singh campaign is to create a ski shuttle to bring students from the U to Little Cottonwood Canyon. He said they plan to realize this goal by convincing the Board of Trustees of the loss they’ll see, both monetarily and in enrollment, if they do not provide transportation options to students. This is especially true because of the U’s goals to shift away from a commuter campus, the Singh ticket said.
Singh said the shuttle would benefit students that don’t ski, too.
“No air pollution is a big thing,” he said. “You’re going to be benefiting from not a lot of cars.”
The Rose ticket has promised a consolidation and redesign of the MobileU app should it win.
“We’ve already started talking to engineering students about this,” Rose said. “This is something I’m excited about, and whether I get this position or not, I would want to see this one through.”
He said having engineering students work on the project would also help its feasibility and cost. The ticket has also advocated for installing sensors in parking lots and garages on campus to count the number of open spaces.
The ABC ticket has proposed an e-bike initiative with their campaign. Abakuki said they’d work with private partners to secure the e-bikes, which students could get at the price of a parking pass.
Voting for the general election closes Feb. 28. It includes races for the legislative assembly and senate and for attorney general. To vote and see who’s running for every position can be done on ASUU’s website.
The debate can be viewed in its entirety here.
