The Signal recently interviewed two ASI Candidates, Alec Austin (sophomore, Political Science) and Jessica Roadifer (junior, Criminal Justice), to ask them what issues they’re running on this upcoming election.

Introducing the Candidates

Alec Austin is currently a candidate for ASI Vice President and is currently nearing the end of his term as the current ASI Director at Large and is now looking to continue being part of ASI by running for the ASI Vice President.

Austin expressed his commitment to Stanislaus from the beginning and said, “I am extremely motivated for Stanislaus State to improve this campus. I applied to this university deciding ‘okay, this is the university I am going to, I’m going to commit myself completely’, and one of my duties in that case personally was to help the student body as much as possible.”

Austin believes by gaining more responsibility, he “can do even more for the student population.”

The duties of ASI Vice President requires the student to serve as the second in command to the ASI President in terms of representing the students at the university.

Jessica Roadifer is currently a candidate for Director at Large but unlike Austin, she is relatively new to the campus at Stan State having recently transferred from Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hills.

Roadifer expressed that she decided to run for two reasons the first being asked by the directors and the second was her desire to get more involved on campus because she is a transfer student.

The duty of the Director at Large is to serve as the main advocate for all student’s rights.

Alec Austin (Candidate for ASI Vice President)

Alec Austin answered questions relating to the balancing of his role as a student along with the heavy load position of ASI Vice Presidents and possible relations with whoever would be elected as ASI President.

Austin described the hard role of being a student for the general school population and said, “It is a difficult job to hold, yet at the same what makes some of our students and our campus so great is the fact that we have a lot of working students on this campus. We have a lot of students that balance these 20 hours a week jobs, even more, some work 40 hours, which is crazy, yet respectful at the same time.”

While Austin did recognize the need for time-management, he also used his time serving as ASI Director at Large as an example of him being able to balance his roles as a student and an ASI board member.

In regards to questions about possible relations with whoever would be elected as ASI President, Austin emphasized the importance of a functioning working environment. He thinks that it would be better if the ASI President was someone he did not know personally he expressed that his approach would be “to make sure that everything is being done in a formal manner, so it can best benefit the student body.”

Austin also welcomed any opposing views that the ASI President and he would have and described it as “a good working environment” and felt like it would be “more of an advantage than a disadvantage.”

Jessica Roadifer (Candidate for ASI Director at Large)

Jessica Roadifer answered questions relating to the rights of students and the ways that she would advocate for their rights.

Roadfier believes that some of the major rights that she would advocate for are “the right to express their thoughts” and “to have a good running school.”

Roadifer cites her advocacy for programs, like the suicide prevention gatekeeper program and the Peer Project, as her qualifications for her being the right person for this position.

She expressed her empathy and willingness in regards to her work in ASI. Roadifer said, “I just feel like I have a big understanding to what it feels to possibly be like to be somebody who gets misunderstood or has ideas, but not a place to express them.”

She emphasized her desire to be more involved with her position. This would include her going out to events, talking to participants, asking them questions, and creating surveys for them to participate in on Warrior Wednesday.

To see more of the candidates and their stances on topics, be sure to watch the interview hosted by Kristen Dias and Adam Grabarek. The candidates are also available on Instagram, Alec Austin @alecaustinofficial and Jessica Roadifer @vote-gmj and @ladymaethril.

Make sure you go to vote on either April 17th or 18th from 8am-6pm in South Dining.