Meet the 2017 ASLC president and vice president candidates
The 2017 ASLC President and Vice President candidates.
March 7, 2017
Elections for ASLC President and Vice President are happening on Tuesday, March 14, with votes being counted from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., according to the ASLC website. Voting will be conducted through an online survey that will be sent out to students via email on the day of the election.
The candidates for ASLC President are Noah Berg, ’18, and Tenzin Yangchen ’18. Alleta Maier, ’18, and Jacob Jackson, ’18, are both running for Vice President.
Noah Berg, Presidential Candidate
Noah Berg, who is running for ASLC president, is a junior environmental policy major and economics minor.
Berg is a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity where he has attended three Pike University leadership conferences. He also has other leadership experiences through Pike, previously being a ASLC senator in the fall, and volunteering his time through many different nonprofit organizations and other events around campus.
“I am running to be ASLC President because I believe there are aspects of cam- pus life that would be well served in being improved. I recognize community, health, safety and environment as areas to be ad- dressed. I believe my decision making abili- ty in conjunction with both my listening skills and my prior experience will aid me in my duties as ASLC President,” Berg said.
Berg also mentioned that he wants to build on the work that the current cabinet positions have achieved.
“I hope to create a stronger and more inclusive community on campus by em- phasizing all kinds of diversity and working to bring students of different backgrounds together. Part of a strong community is car- ing for the members with mental health is- sues, which is one of the biggest struggles college students have to face.”
Berg said he hopes to raise awareness for these issues and make sure students are aware of their support options on campus.
Berg also mentioned that he hopes to bring these concerns to the attention of col- lege administration and to work with them to have them addressed.
Berg also mentioned addressing the ways students are communicated to by ASLC and decreasing the amount of emails sent out to students. He wants to start pro- viding information through different apps and by hosting forums throughout the se- mester to give students the ability for their voices to be heard.
“As president I would use my place on committees to be a voice for students at all meetings, both weekly and monthly. Ad- ditionally, I would work closely with Dan Ferguson portraying student needs so they could be passed on to higher ups as well as using my meetings with President Hellie to address any concerns on campus that my cabinet could not address ourselves,” Berg said.
Berg also said that he hopes to be an approachable president “so I can hear stu- dent opinions through both email and face to face conversations so I can better por- tray the opinions of our diverse student body,” Berg said.
Tenzin Yangchen, Presidential candidate
Junior Tenzin Yangchen, a Biochemis- try major and native of India, is running for ASLC President because she’s always been passionate about taking leadership posi- tions.
A transfer student from Mt. Hood Com- munity College, Yangchen was the director of diversity for the Associated Student Gov- ernment at the college before attending Linfield.
Yangchen has served as an ASLC sena- tor for two years and competes on the fo- rensics team in addition to being a coordi- nator for the Wildcat Intercultural Network.
Yangchen recently represented Linfield at a United Nations conference.
Her top priorities are getting students more involved, having student voices heard and prioritizing student interests with the College Planning Board.
“If I believe in something I don’t fear any- thing. I don’t have to be diplomatic I have nothing to lose,” Yangchen said.
Yangchen is also interested in providing a textbook exchange for students through the ASLC app and improving faculty and student relations through open forums. She also wants to have an anonymous sugges- tion box for those who don’t feel comfort- able speaking at open forums.
Yangchen wants to work with the Inter- national Programs Office to improve issues and concerns that international students have who aren’t feeling heard.
“I feel like I know this college well and can represent the students the best,” Yangchen said.
Yangchen also wants to focus on the quality and choices of food Dillin hall serves students, especially those who are vegan or vegetarian and have a hard time finding food at Dillin that meets their dietary needs.
She also wants to support clubs char- tered by ASLC. “I really want to work the clus to see how we can support them the best,” Yangchen said.
“The student life is really dependent on these clubs … Greek life … so I feel like we should really keep them alive if we want to have more students coming to Linfield.”
Yangchen also wants to work closely with CPS to promote more safety on cam- pus. “Being safe and feeling safe is not the same thing,” she said. “My purpose or ob- jective is really to ensure that every student on campus feels safe, represented and wel- come,” Yangchen said.
She plans to communicate with the student body through social media, emails and forums. “Forums give people of color and marginalized people the chance to come up and speak out,” Yangchen said.
Alleta Maier, Vice Presidential candidate
Junior Alleta Maier, a physic and mathematics double major with a gender studies minor, is running for ASLC Vice President because she sees room for im- provement in the Linfield community.
“I think I’ve spent enough time as a student leader of clubs, co-facilitator of Safe Space training and member of the President’s Diversity Advisory Committee to be prepared to be a voice for students and empower the Linfield community, “Maier said.
Maier says her greatest strength is lis- tening to people’s needs “so I know that I’d be able to bring the voice of Linfield’s students to the senate, the executive cabi- net.”
Maier was part of the group of stu- dent’s last year who were able to get gen- der inclusive housing implemented on the Linfield campus.
Maier has also been the president of Fusion for the past two years and has also been the co-facilitator of the Safe Space training program and has also been ivo- lved in the Sexual Misconduct Response Team, multicultural programs, Alpha Lamda Delta Honors Society, Pi Mu Ep- silon Mathematics Society and Sigma Pi Sigma Physics society. She also said she is a current pledge of the Sigma Kappa Phi sorority.
“I think that having more diversity in events and resources is imperitive to the progression of the community,” Maier said.
Maier wants to work have more open door communications between adiminis- trative and student groups that focus on diversity to make sure tat all members of the community are supported and feel safe to learn.
She also said she wants to work for more accessibility and accountability of the ASLC cabinent and senate. She plans to achieve this by futher developing the ASLC app.
She says she is running because she wants students voices to be heard “so never be afraid to come lament to me about any issues you find important,” Maier said.
In terms of communication, Maier said she really hopes to “bolster ASLC usage of social media platforms in conjuction with the ASLC app and the standard email to make sure students, faculty and adminis- tration know the goings on of Linfield.”
“Never be afraid to stop me around campus to let me know about an issue on campus you’re passionate about. I’d love to listen and learn what I can do.”
Jacob Jackson, Vice Presidential candidate
Jacob Jackson, who is running for ASLC Vice President, is a junior double major in French and English literature.
Jackson is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, and is currently a member on the executive board. Jackson has also been an international mentor on campus.
“I am running for this position because I feel like I have the experience and charac- ter to successfully carry out the office as well as bring solutions to the problems we have on campus. I believe that my experience as an upperclassman as well as a student who has studied abroad in a foreign country will lend me the tools to efficiently deal with the challenges that the VP position poses,” Jackson said.
Jackson believes that his optimistic outlook and experiences abroad in France will allow him to address campus issues through a more multicultural perspective.
Some of Jackson’s goals, if elected, would be to develop and improve the ASLC app to better reach and engage the student body, while also making events from LCAT/ASLC more interactive.
“Bringing other food options to cam- pus is another big goal of mine, as there is little to do in the ways of food if one is an underclassman or without a car. We in the ASLC brought food trucks last semester and I would like to continue tuning the pro- gram to offer more options for students, Jackson said.
Jackson also wants to “promote not only diversity of ethnicity, but to also pro- mote diversity of thought, economical background, physical capability and diver- sity of culture,” Jackson said.
Jackson also hopes to focus on utiliz- ing the idea of “the power of a small col- lege,” giving students the opportunity for their voices to be heard.
“I would definitely like to implement student comment boxes on campus, which my senate committee is already working to- wards. I would also like to introduce some manner of polling through the ASLC ap- plication, to enable anyone to quickly give feedback after an event or give their two cents about the goings-on at Linfield.”