A K LEO T H E
MONDAY, APRIL 7 to TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2014 VOLUME 109 ISSUE 71
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Page 2 | Ka Leo | Monday, April 7 2014
Twitter @kaleoohawaii | news@kaleo.org | Noelle Fujii Editor | Fadi Youkhana Associate
2014 ASUH ELECTION GUIDE
Uniting for a cause: student government
AUSTIN COEN/ KA LEO O HAWAI‘I
The Student Senate met for a general meeting on April 2.
What is ASUH? FADI YOUKHANA Associate News Editor The Associated Students of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa is a student government that represents undergraduate students on the Mānoa campus. Charted in 1912 by the Board of Regents, ASUH has been serving Mānoa students for more than 101 years. ASUH represents approximately 14,000 full-time classified undergraduate students. “Our main goal is (to) advocate for the students we serve and be the voice on matters relating to issues we face as students on our campus,” said current ASUH President Richard Misuzawa. Including the president, ASUH has a 38-member body that participates in eight committees. Those committees work on specific tasks and are in charge of different initiatives, which include campus life, finance, external affairs and student affairs. Within the Senate, there are positions that represent indi-
vidual colleges and positions to represent the entire student body as an executive officer. The executive officer positions include president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. In addition to the executive officer positions, there are 30 college senator seats, with at least one student representing each college. ASUH also offers scholarship funding to assist undergraduate students on campus during both the spring and fall semesters. ASUH awards about 10 percent of all the applicants of each category with scholarship funds. In addition to scholarships and representing different colleges, ASUH also passes resolutions and bills, which at times include controversial issues. “As a Senate, sometimes there are two sides that come out, and it is hard to come down to one solid stance on an issue. However, we encourage any and all students to voice their opinions because that is how we are able to truly hear the student voice,” Misuzawa said.
Students may attend ASUH meetings, which are held every month, and give public testimonies to make sure their voices are being heard. “We may be the advocates on it, but actually listening to students and hearing their perspectives really shapes the way we do our job as servant leaders for the student body,” Misuzawa said. The ASUH senators and executive officers constantly meet with university administration, faculty, staff, community groups and government officials in order to voice undergraduate student concerns and comments. In addition, ASUH is also responsible for utilizing ASUH student fees to fund diversified student programs and various on campus events.
ASUH office Location: Campus Center 211A Hours: Mon-Fri, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Contact: 808-956-4822, asuh@ hawaii.edu
NOELLE FUJII News Editor As the Associated Students of the University of Hawai‘i candidates begin their campaigns, they find that some share the same vision and have teamed up to form coalitions. “Our team made the decision to campaign as a coalition knowing that all of us wholeheartedly trust each other and complement each other’s leadership styles,” ASUH presidential candidate Martin Nguyen said. “All of our combined skill sets contribute toward ensuring diversity, innovation and results to the student body.” Martin has formed a coalition with vice presidential candidate Kelly Zakimi, treasurer candidate Wai Sam Lao and secretarial candidate Sean Mitsui, running on the platform “Your Experience, Your Money, Your Voice.” Their campaign is called “Your Voice, Your Vote.” The team’s primary initiative deals with assembling the leadership of the eight currently standing committees and forming larger conglomerate committee groups that would be separated into three over-arching divisions — Operations, Finance and Communications. “Operations would be tasked with addressing ‘Your Experience,’ Finance tasked with managing ‘Your Money’ and Communications ensuring ‘Your Voice,’” Martin said. The Executive Officer positions would lead these committee groups and thus form a framework that is more
developed and sophisticated than the current structure, according to Martin. “Our platform is not merely a platform, but rather a promise from our team to ensure that these three premises are brought to the students in the form of results and solutions,” he said. Martin notes that when one is comfortable and confident with his or her team members, the results are impressive. “With that, I am wholeheartedly confident in my campaign-mates, and I can say, without a doubt, that I couldn’t have asked for a better group of intelligent, passionate and dedicated group of individuals that I have the honor to call my team,” he said. ASUH presidential candidate Priya Rashid and vice presidential candidate Cori Grunenwald have also teamed up because of their common interests and goals: transparency, increased involvement and better relations between students and professors. The pair is also part of a larger “family of support,” according to Rashid. She and Grunenwald are supporting senator candidates Froilan Garma, Edwin Roman, Max Uyeda, Gary Foresman, Blaize Sanchez and senator-atlarge candidate Kevin Omokawa. According to Grunenwald, she and Rashid are running on a general platform based on transparency. “The lack of transparency within ASUH inhibits the correct representation of the student body,” she said. Grunenwald noted that the student senate posts minutes from its meetings, but there are still some information gaps.
Twitter @kaleoohawaii | news@kaleo.org | Noelle Fujii Editor | Fadi Youkhana Associate
Ka Leo | Monday, April 7 2014 | Page 3
2014 ASUH ELECTION GUIDE
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Coalitions combine common interests and goals Continued from page 2 “It is difficult to tell what will be discussed at future meetings, even with all of the information being uploaded on the website,” she said. “This makes it difficult for people to decide to attend meetings if they even wanted to. In addition to this, the fact that no one knows about ASUH to begin with means that no one is checking the website and keeping up-to-date on the minutes. This makes the process next to useless.” The E-Team is also working to improve ASUH’s transparency and engineer a better Mānoa. The coalition is comprised of presidential candidate
Stephen Nishihara, vice presidential candidate Christopher Escalante, secretarial candidate Cassandra Belisario, treasurer candidate Grant Takara, senator-at-large candidates Cory Murakami, Scott Nishihara, Melissa Onishi, Chadwick Ulep, and senator candidates Kelsie Sasabe and Roxie-Anne Kamoshida. “We have those who have been in ASUH and those who have not because it’s the ones who have not that will help continue to push for the change and transparency that they want to see, which is why they’re running,” Nishihara said.
The team’s website reflects this as the team posted documents of each veteran candidate’s votes on senate legislation. Another team, called “The Greatest,” is comprised of presidential candidate Ryan Mandado, treasurer candidate Chantelle Siador, and senator-at-large candidates Eric Baxa, Jerrin Lawi-an and Lauren Tagaban. According to its website, the team wants the students on campus to improve campus life, enhance education and promote school pride. The five-member team isn’t like the others — each member has
different goals and mindsets. With these differences, the team wants to bring different ideas to the table, according to its website.
Coalition websites Martin Nyguen: yourasuh2014.wordpress.com Priya Rashid: Facebook: “Vote for Priya Rashid and Cori Grunenwald for ASUH” Stephen Nishihara: eteam2014.weebly.com Ryan Mandado: uhmgreatest.weebly.com
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Page 4 | Ka Leo | Monday, April 7 2014
Twitter @kaleoohawaii | news@kaleo.org | Noelle Fujii Editor | Fadi Youkhana Associate
2014 ASUH ELECTION GUIDE
What are the most pressing issues affecting UH students right now? How would you go about addressing them?
Martin Nguyen
Junior, finance and international business
Priya Rashid
Junior, journalism and chemistry
Ryan Mandado
Junior, Chinese and American studies
Stephen Nishihara
Junior, mechanical engineering
The race for the ASUH begins as four students campaign to be the next president. Ka Leo conducted interviews with each candidate to find out their goals.
TASHA MERO Staff Writer
NOELLE FUJII News Editor
MEAKALIA PREVICH-LIU Contributing Writer
ZOE WINBURN Staff Writer
“Our campaign is running on a platform based on three premises - 1) Your Experience; 2) Your Money; 3) Your Voice. With these three premises, we hope to address issues facing UH students. Of course, issues change as time progresses on, but at the moment, our team has identified three major issues that we would like to address – 1) bringing back UH pride; 2) addressing rising tuition costs and lobbying for additional funds from the legislature; 3) enhancing dialogue, collaboration and communication between students, administration, government officials and the international community. Through a proposed restructure of the ASUH and our campaign’s initiatives that we hope to implement, if elected, we hope to solve these issues and create a better UH for all.”
“The biggest concern is the lack of representation and transparency in administrative decision-making. The reason is that big decisions are being made on campus: tuition hikes, student services and fees. All of these choices and decisions are being made without the opinion and perspective of the students. The university is funded by students for the students. Choices must be made with the students.”
“Graduating on time is a problem. I see students staying and paying longer and not graduating on time. I think this is because students do not have the right resources to direct them on a successful four-year track. One way we can tackle this issue is by supporting our first-year programs as well as awareness on advising on campus. Sustainability is definitely on my list for initiatives. I am bit by bit learning about sustainability efforts on campus, and I am enjoying it. There are wonderful student leaders on campus who are doing what they can to make sure that UH is becoming more and more green. I want to work with these students and organizations to work on eliminating plastic waste, installing more water filtration systems, compost initiatives, etc.“
“One of the most pressing issues affecting UH students right now is tuition. What students need to know is that ASUH exists as an advocate for them, and it is the responsibility of ASUH to let its constituents know why their tuition is rising and how it is being spent. I would address this through restructuring in ASUH and as a result, improving communication between ASUH and students. There is a need for transparency in addition to outreach. The e-team has already taken a step in that direction with the publication of voting records of members who have served in the Senate. In our website, we also encourage students to contact us and ask us why we voted the way we did and/or why we introduced the legislation that we did.”
“My team and I are running to help contribute toward furthering the collaborative vision of a world-class university with student experiences that will endure for a lifetime.”
“(Cori Grunenwald and I) believe that increasing transparency in decision-making and funding will mean that ASUH can make better choices toward a better campus. The first three ways are implementing student surveys across campus that poll the opinions and perspectives of students. Using social media such as Twitter and Facebook more effectively as a medium between students and ASUH.“
“I want students to choose a student leader who has contributed to the organization in the best way they could have.”
To view the full interviews, visit kaleo.org
“I am proud, and I feel blessed to come to UH Mānoa. However, I cannot say that my peers feel the same because I have often heard otherwise, and that is something that I want to change.”
Twitter @kaleoopinions | opinions@kaleo.org | Doorae Shin Editor| Kristen Bonifacio Associate
Page 5 | Ka Leo | Monday, April 7 2014
Opinions
Hitting rewind on the reverse racism issue: a statistical analysis
MARSMET472 / FLICKR
The Bureau of Justice Statistics drew up a report of 210,000 hate crimes that have gone unreported by the U.S. press. In the report, it was found that nine in 10,000 whites, nine in 10,000 Hispanics and seven in 10,000 blacks are targets “There comes a time when one must take a position of hate crime. According to FBI statistics from 1995-2002, that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must whites are the second most targeted individuals for hate take it because conscience tells him it is right.” crime in New York City. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote those If whites are not the targets of racwords, finding that running the risk of ism, why are so many of them victims of being politically incorrect or even offen- Does the white population of the world truly believe they are disracially charged hate crimes? sive is nothing compared to the strength criminated against? Studies say yes. of saying what is “right.” Although the public may not want to hear the truth, FINAL THOUGHT S and will even object to the truth, ignorance must no lon- of one to 10. Eleven percent of whites reported that there This ar ticle is not meant to say one group is more of ger be tolerated if a change in perspective must be made. was an anti-white bias of 10 out of 10. They also believed a victim to racism than another. The purpose is to demRecently, an article titled “Busting the myth of ‘reverse that discrimination against whites had increased an aver- onstrate that the assumption that racism is exclusive racism’” was written for the Opinions section of Ka Leo, age of 2.9 percent between the 1950s and 2000s. to minorities is ignorant of evidence. In order to comClearly, the belief that whites are discriminated against pletely abolish racism, we must not focus on one victim arguing that “reverse racism” is pure fiction rooted in is there. But why? denial of white privilege. only to ignore another. There were essential flaws to the article, as it failed to address the factual and statistical bases of the claims. THE S TATIS TICS This article seeks to dig deeper into the issue and disTwo nations, Britain (90 percent white) and the United cover whether reverse racism is fact or fiction. States (72.4 percent white), are sampled in the following staAs opposed to the aforementioned article, this piece tistics of minority-on-majority, or white, hate crime. Crime will disregard personal opinion and allow facts and statis- statistics are used because they are more easily measured tics to speak for themselves. than other results of racism. The goal of the presented
BR AD DELL Features Editor
THE TERM Is “reverse racism” a real term? A form of it — “reverse discrimination” — is. White conser vatives opposing the “Affirmative Action” minority employment preference policies under the Title VII and Equal Employment Opportunities Commission first coined the term “reverse discrimination.” The term is now officially defined by Merriam-Webster. Originally used to address school and work discrimination, the term has since evolved to “reverse racism” and is now commonly accepted as being discrimination against a dominant racial group – usually the white race. The term is real. In the end though, it’s only a term. Is the white majority truly targeted by racism?
THE PS YC HOLOGY Does the white population of the world truly believe they are discriminated against? Studies say yes. In a 2013 Rasmussen Reports phone survey of 1,000
Americans, 37 percent of American adults thought most black Americans are racist against white Americans, and 18 percent believed most Hispanic Americans are as well. Additionally, sociologists from Tufts and Har vard University asked 209 white and 208 black subjects to rate racism between each other’s groups since the 1950s on a scale
research is to confi rm a remarkable presence of racist attitude toward the selected white populations by minorities. In a 2004 British Crime Survey, 87,000 people from minority ethnic communities said they had fallen victim to a racially motivated crime, whereas 92,000 whites said they also fell victim. According to the report, 57 percent of racially motivated crimes were not committed by white people. Additionally, data released under the Freedom of Information Legislation shows that between 1995 and 2004, there were 58 racially motivated murders, out of which 24 victims were white. In Oldham, Manchester, 62 percent of the 572 racially motivated attacks in 2001 were committed by Asians on white victims according to the Greater Manchester Police. In the United States, a “poor, young, white, single urban dweller” is the most common victim of a hate crime, according to an analysis of the July 2000 to December 2003 Justice Department statistics. In 1999, according to the Justice Department, there were 197,679 black-on-white violent hate crimes and 8,198 white-on-black violent hate crimes.
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Page 6 | Ka Leo | Monday, April 7 2014
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confused 3 Supreme Norse god 4 __-Salem, N.C. 5 Fr. holy woman 6 1994 Denis Leary film about a crook who acts as an arbiter 7 Gut-punch reactions 8 Batman and Robin, e.g. 9 Italian tenor standard 10 Spiritual Arizona resort 11 “Keep dreaming” 12 Came by horse 13 Old Russian royal 18 Flower starter 23 Nick and Nora’s dog 25 Former Congressional gp. concerned with Communist infiltration 26 Univ. teacher 27 “The __ Kid”: ’50s TV Western 28 Former Calif. NFLer 29 __ a kind: unique 30 Mental picture 31 Persian Gulf ship 32 Pretty close 33 Checker, e.g. 38 Provide critical comments for 39 Curious George creators Margret and H.A. 40 Actress Russo 43 Video file format 46 Boise resident 48 Trash bin 49 Old cowboy movies 50 Previously owned 53 Drug cop 54 Dating from 55 High hairstyle 56 Happy 58 Emerald Isle 59 Normandy battleground 60 One-horse carriage 63 Dixie general 64 St. Pete’s state
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Twitter @kaleosports | sports@kaleo.org | Joey Ramirez Editor | Hayley Musashi Associate
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Sports
Fake it ‘til you make it The man behind @Fake808SPORTS discusses Twitter celebrity and the state of UH athletics JOEY R AMIREZ Sports Editor @Joey_ _Ramirez
It’s strange finally meeting someone face-to-face after more than two years of getting to know them 140 characters at a time. But with Ben, the mind behind the popular @Fake808SPORTS Twitter account, conversation speeds past awkward small talk, as I found out when he detailed how he planned on grilling me in front of his audience of more than 2,900 followers. “Now I know why Joey is in print and not on television,” said Ben – who requested last name anonymity. Not 25 minutes after meeting him, I was already being burned on everything from facial hair to being an amateur Peter King.
B E H I N D T H E K E Y B OA R D
For those who follow him on Twitter, Ben’s offl ine personality is far from shocking. A conversation with him is drenched with sarcasm and littered with barbs. But his derisive style complements his character rather than detracts from it. “Some of his tweets could come off as he’s one of our jerk, hard-to-please fans,” said Josh Elms, a reliever on the UH baseball team and one of the many athletes Ben has met through @Fake808SPORTS. “But actually I think he’s one of the most supportive guys for UH athletics, and he really wants the best for us.”
Stemming from a childhood full of UH football games with his grandparents in the ’80s, Ben has unwaveringly endorsed Hawai‘i athletics through whatever outlet available. Though he owns season tickets to Rainbow Warrior football and basketball games and regularly attends athletic department fundraising events, Ben’s voice – more accurately, his typing – speaks louder than his wallet. Ben uses his status as a local Twitter celebrity to create a web of support for the school’s student-athletes. Isolated from professional sports by thousands of miles of ocean, UH athletics is all that many fans in Hawai‘i care about. With this added importance often come elevated, if not unreasonable, expectations. “We have so many fans that will call into talk radio or they’ll post on a message board or they’ll put on Facebook or Twitter account and say how, ‘Sean Schroeder’s garbage.’ It’s disappointing because these are our own kids,” Ben said in reference to UH’s former quarterback, who endured criticism during his junior year in 2012. “I give more credit to Sean Schroeder for the fact that he took his licks on the field – he got beat up, physically. And he took his licks off the field, too – from his own fans.” Mixed in with his steady f low of sarcasm, Ben ensures that the underlying message of @Fake808SPOR TS is to have the student-athletes’ backs, be it by tweeting encouragement directly to
them or imploring his followers to show support of their own. “The power of social media for a studentathlete has changed so much between three years ago and where it is right now,” Ben said. “Throughout the past three years, I’ve learned to be respectful (and) be sarcastic. Because the more sarcastic I am, you can’t really take it seriously. I realized these are kids. These are 18, 19, 20-year-old kids. They have families. They (have) feelings.” However, while his tweets may consistently reach thousands of people, it is the moments that few see that define Ben’s support for Hawai‘i and its athletes. When Elms made UH’s baseball team this season, Ben was among the fi rst to congratulate him. Now that former Rainbow Wahine softball star Kelly Majam-Elms, Josh’s wife, is no longer a student, Ben sometimes gives her his basketball tickets so she can get in for free. “He’s almost been like a big brother to me at some times,” said Rainbow Warrior second baseman Stephen Ventimilia. “Anytime I have a rough game, he’ll always be the first one to text me and be like, ‘Keep your head up. You’ve got another game tomorrow.’”
T O U G H L OV E F O R U H AT H L E T I C S Though Ben stands strongly against criticizing student-athletes, he has no problem letting people know that his opinion on UH athletics isn’t always sunshine and gumdrops.
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During the football team’s 1-11 season this fall, he referred to OCSports’ Norm Chow: Inside Access as “Norm Chow: Inside Excuses.” In the aftermath of the 2012 fraudulent Stevie Wonder concert scam, Ben and his cousin made a Fat Head of the R&B singer’s face and videobombed the Stan Sheriff Center jumbo screen to the laughter of the arena crowd and irritation of an athletic department representative. But for Ben, stunts like this are all about having fun. In fact, he opines most everything about athletics should revolve around having a good time. In a year that has seen social media and message boards fi lled with rants on who involved with UH athletics should be benched, demoted or fi red, Ben strives to promote positivity among Hawai‘i’s fanbase. Though he may mock the athletics department on Twitter or call out the fans for being fair-weather, underneath it all Ben wants nothing more than success for the school he loves. “He is a prime example of how every fan should strive to be,” said Davis Rozitis, a senior on this year’s basketball team. “To go through good or bad, always be supportive, come to every game. He not only comes to basketball. He also supports baseball. … And I’ve seen him come to women’s basketball as well. Women’s basketball isn’t really a money sport for the school, but people (should) still come and support. And that’s how every fan should strive to be.”
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Features@kaleo.org | Brad Dell Editor |Nicolyn Charlot Associate
Features
‘Tunnel of Oppression’:
Want to Graduate on Time? Interactive exhibit provides hope at cost of ignorance Take 15 credits per semester or 30 credits per year to be on path to earn your four-year degree in four years.
sophomore,” she said. “It was a very unsettling experience. They were talking about things like rape and sexual abuse and global environmental issues, and I Frear Hall is hosting an interactive exhibit this week just felt really small and helpless at fi rst, like there that aims to shock and distress students with a grim was nothing I could do, and I thought, ‘Wow there’s taste of the reality of oppression. so much wrong with the world.’” “Tunnel of Oppression: Shine Through the Darkness,” an interactive exhibit created by Student Hous- T H E H O P E ing Services, is an annual undertaking that seeks to inInteractive components, such as the option to write form and provoke thought within the community about out thoughts and feelings regarding the tunnel, are availvarious forms of “oppression, discrimination, power and able, but the organizers don’t privilege” through an “interacwant attendees to stop there. tive, immersive experience,” The next step in the experience according to Student Housing is to become knowledgeable Leadership and Programming in the ways that change can be Coordinator Aspen Krajewski. made, both on a community and world level. THE TOPICS “We will have a ‘hope Every year, new topics are room’ for every topic that shows given focus. how you can get involved and “This year we picked four how you can create change,” overarching themes, which are Krajewski said. “For example, we civic issues, socialization, genhave a RIO, SlaveFree808, that’s der and sexual orientation and working with us. They work very Hawaiian culture and commuclosely with people who deal with nity,” Krejewski said. “Within legislation involving human trafthose we have specific topics ficking, so the information in the such as body image and perceproom that deals with trafficking tion of college versus the reality is how you can help to further of college. Issues such as animal legislation being passed, or how abuse are also tackled, especialFILE PHOTO you can get involved with their ly with Sea World being in the organization if it’s something you Frear Hall media so much recently.” are passionate about.” Krajewski said that since this is an annual event, different topics are covered T H E TA K E AWAY The tunnel is not meant to merely entertain. each year so that people who return every year don’t The organizers hope that valuable lessons will be continuously receive the same information. “We also wanted to be true to what our students taken from the experience. “We would like people to realize that with oppresare feeling passionate about and what they want to sion and discrimination, we so often think of certain share with their community,” Krajewski said. populations or certain groups, but really there’s opT H E D E S PA I R pression and discrimination everywhere, and we must The experience of “ Tunnel of Oppression” is realize that those topics are so broad and that every self-paced, with participants moving through dif- topic has the right to be advocated for,” Krajewski said. ferent rooms on the first f loor of Frear Hall. The “Sometimes they feel like there’s no solution, but as stufirst step deals with recognizing the reality of the dents, as a generation, there’s so much positive change high level of oppression in our world. that can happen. They just have to be willing to stand Resident Assistant Caitlin Maile described it as “an ed- up and advocate for that change.” ucational, interactive ‘walk-through’ experience that puts the person into the situations being depicted, which makes ‘TUNNEL OF OPPRESSION’ them experience the feelings that are being portrayed. Where: Frear Hall, fi rst fl oor Some parts of tunnel are supposed to make you uncomfortWhen: April 9-10, 4-10 p.m.; April 11, 12-8 p.m. able because we’re talking about heavy topics here.” Cost: Free “The fi rst time I went through the Tunnel, I was a
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Twitter @kaleoohawaii | news@kaleo.org | Noelle Fujii Editor | Fadi Youkhana Associate
Ka Leo | Monday, April 7 2014 | Page 9
2014 ASUH ELECTION GUIDE
What do you hope to accomplish as ASUH vice president?
Christopher Escalante Senior, mechanical engineering
Cori Grunenwald Junior, political science
Kelly Zakimi
Sophomore, history
This year, three students are running to become the next vice president of ASUH. Ka Leo conducted interviews with each candidate to find out their goals.
ZOE WINBURN Staff Writer
NOELLE FUJII News Editor
NOELLE FUJII News Editor
“Coming from an engineering background, I hope to make the senate more efficient and responsive to the needs of the students. I hope to do this by restructuring the current standing committee system so that we can put more senators in committees that actually need them, following up with committee chairs and vice-chairs as well as senate members on their goals and the progress that they have made, and implementing innovative solutions that promote communication between students and their government. Besides working closely with the ASUH president and serving as a non-voting ex-officio member of all standing committees, the ASUH vice president’s main duty is to oversee leadership development in the senate. In my four years at UH Mānoa, I was fortunate to have had served in several positions as both a student leader and mentor. I hope to use my experiences and life lessons to mentor and bring out the best in the Senate members so that they can better and more effectively serve their constituents, the students.”
“I hope to create effective policies and processes to carry out my platform. This includes, but is not limited to, creating a go-between system for students and professors in order to better link their interests, using social media to fully inform the students about ASUH and creating a better system to report what goes on in meetings. I want to make it easier for professors to hear common student concerns. In order to do this I would have ASUH hold open forums, ones similar to the forums Chancellor Apple holds, in order to hear general concerns students may have. Then, after hearing concerns that students have about professors, I would have a either a yearly or bi-yearly meeting with professors, or deans (that seems more feasible), to voice the concerns students may have about how they are being taught. I want to use social media to better promote what will be discussed in meetings before them being held. That way, students will be able to decide on whether or not to attend. There are definitely some interesting topics brought up in meetings, but the average student would not know that they were being discussed in the first place.“
“I hope to enhance training within the Senate so each ASUH member is fully equipped to represent his/her constituents. I’m hoping to increase the number of training workshops, as well as build on an idea implemented this past year in senate: pairing new senators with more experienced senators (who have been on senate before), thereby helping new members adjust to the Senate more quickly. Additionally, I want to bridge the gap between students and their government by introducing informal “talk story” sessions where students have the opportunity to personally talk to ASUH members and give input regarding bettering student life here at Mānoa.”
“I want students to graduate from Mānoa and look back at their time here with pride. I want students to be confident that their experience at UH Mānoa has fully prepared them to pursue their dreams.”
“I feel as though students have not been effectively represented for many different reasons, but the main issue I have seen is an issue with knowledge of the organization itself.”
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“The role of vice president focuses on the internal matters of the senate, specifically leadership development. Leadership development is something I’ve grown to be passionate about. If elected, my goal is to empower leaders to empower you, the students. This means training and encouraging your ASUH representatives so they can better advocate on your behalf.“
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2014 ASUH ELECTION GUIDE
Turnout in ASUH elections varies sporadically ALEX BITTER City Editor No matter what issues they champion, this year’s candidates for positions within the Associated Students of the University of Hawaiʻi face the challenge of getting voters to turn out. It’s something that past candidates have done with varying degrees of success. Data on voter turnout from recent elections shows that the number of students who have cast ballots in recent years has varied greatly. In some years, the number of votes cast for executive positions, including president, has been more than five times the number of votes in other years, according to figures provided by ASUH.
In contrast, the 2012 general election, which attracted 449 votes for executive offices, included lower-profile races, according to Koethe, who ran for vice president that year. “We had one competitor (for president), and she had no slate,” she said. “There was less stress on the candidates.” Those fluctuations have come as undergraduate enrollment has increased slightly.
Educating students about ASUH — including the senate’s very existence — has also been a key part of past campaigns, she said. “They don’t just say ‘Go on myUH and vote,’” she said. “Their first question (when campaigning) is always ‘Do you know what ASUH is?’” Kelly Zakimi, a sophomore running for vice president on the “Your Voice, Your
CANDIDATES MATTER That year-to-year shift may be due in part to the candidates on the ballot, the competition between them and the excitement they can generate. ASUH Vice President Francesca Koethe said competition among those seeking positions has been greatest in past campaigns when candidates establish platforms and run on slates. In those elections, candidates often work to sell students on their platform and do everything they can to get them to vote, she said. “A lot of the votes are candidate-driven,” Koethe said. “The more they push, the higher the numbers go.” The campaign leading up to the 2013 general elections saw such a competition for voters, she said. That year, a group of largely ASUHoutsiders, led by presidential candidate Ian Ross, ran against a slate of incumbents, led by President Richard Mizusawa.
Vote” slate said she hopes to build off of last spring’s higher-than-average turnout and convince students who voted for the first time last year to come out again. “This year, many more people know what ASUH is,” Zakimi said.
HAVING A PRESENCE When no one is campaigning to become part of it, students see ASUH’s influence through a variety of activities. Even if they don’t vote in its elections, many students interact with the senate at the beginning of every school year, when its members decide how much money to disperse to UH Mānoa’s registered student organizations. As the official governing body for undergraduate students, the senate’s constitution gives it authority to represent almost 14,500 undergraduates when it passes resolutions and other legislation, regardless of how many students vote for its members. That representation also gives it authority when ASUH collaborates with other organizations chartered by UH’s Board of Regents. Matthew Nagata, president of the BOR-charted Campus Center Board, said that the group regularly collaborates with ASUH on activities at Campus Center. The board is working with ASUH to establish a new room on the third floor of Campus Center for RIOs to work and carry out club business — something that ASUH decided was necessary to serve the student organizations, he said. Nagata said his organization, which works with groups that speak on behalf of many different demographics on campus, often looks to ASUH to assess the needs and opinions of undergraduates as a whole. “They have the representation of the undergraduate students,” he said.
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