Earlier this week, the Signal interviewed ASI candidates Maria Marquez (senior, Communication Studies), Michelle Nungaray (senior, Criminal Justice), and Karmjit Bath (sophomore, Finance and Economics) in regards to their stances and the issues they are advocating for during their campaign.
Marquez, Nungaray and Bath are running under the same campaign. Marquez and Nungaray are rerunning for Associated Student Inc. (ASI) President and ASI Vice President respectively and Bath is running for Director at Large.
Before moving onto questions that were specifically for the individual candidates and the position that they are running for, the candidates answered a few questions regarding their motivation for running and what they hope to accomplish if they were to be elected for both Stan State and the Stockton campus.
Nungaray wants to make Stan State a better place by listening “to our students, [making] sure we’re [the ASI board] always amplifying their voice, and actually truly listening to them.”
Marquez explained that one of her main motivations for rerunning for ASI President is to represent the graduate students.
“Graduate students don’t have enough resources like undergrads, the campus closes at 5 p.m., when they get here, they don’t have the Health Center, they don’t have MSR [the Mary Stuart Rogers building]…I want to advocate on behalf of them,” said Marquez.
In regards to the types of resources/changes that he would like to see at the Stockton campus, Bath said that he would like to get more staff for the Stockton campus and use some of the empty classrooms as “study spaces for the students.”
When asked what he believes are important student needs, Bath said that financial literacy is a big student need due to lack of classes and resources. He would like to implement workshops to teach students how to properly “handle their finances.”
Bath added that students can expect for him to be persistent, especially for important matters.
Bath is running against Karlos Marquez, Jeffin Abraham, Wonuola Olagunju, and Jessica Roadifer for Director at Large.
In regards as to how she plans to work with the elected ASI President when they have opposing views, Nungaray said that over the three and a half years that she’s worked with the current ASI President candidates, “we all ensure we don’t leave the room without us finding a consensus and without us agreeing and without us being happy and without us feeling like ‘okay this is the right thing we have to do for our students and this is what we’re gonna do.’”
When asked how she would balance being ASI Vice President and a student, Nungaray said “I currently do that now… I am stressed sometimes, but I manage it well. I am someone who works under pressure.”
Nungaray is running for ASI Vice President against A’Kia Walker and Alec Austin.
Marquez believed that students should vote because they need to see “the effort that these students [ASI candidates] want to provide within student government and what they want to do within student government and if what they plan to do will actually bring a positive change on campus.”
Since Marquez is currently the ASI President, she always makes sure to interact with as many students as possible to listen to them. Marquez believes having “a conversation with them [the students]” in order to meet the wants and needs for the students is an important aspect of her position.
Marquez is running against MiShaye Venerable for ASI President.
Be sure to listen to the podcast to listen to the more in-depth answers of the candidates.
Don’t forget to vote in the ASI elections on April 17th and 18th from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. at South Dining and if you’re at the Stockton Campus from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
