Slate's goal is to make a connection with students

Editor,

My name is Steve Aguilar, and I am The Connection’s vice presidential candidate.

We wanted the timing to be right before submitting this letter to the students at UNM explaining The Connection’s views and standpoints.

We knew that the election would come down to a battle of voices; the reason we have waited until now is so the student body can get a clear taste of exactly what The People represent. Now hear our voice.

Much has been made over the past two semesters about the importance of diversity in undergraduate student government. As an ASUNM senator, I realize that diversity is an important aspect of a truly democratic process. Without diversity (both political and cultural), we can’t grow as individuals or as a society. This is what The Connection is all about.

We assembled The Connection with the ideal of diversity in mind. We took the best ASUNM senators who decided to run for re-election: Andrea Cook, President Pro Tempore; Grant Nichols, Finance Committee chairman; and Heather Gabel, Presidential Appointments Committee chairwoman. Our senate candidates are leaders from every corner of the UNM campus. They are not only involved in campus life, but they are in touch with the student body as well. These leaders are the cream of the crop. They have to be in order to represent all the students of UNM, not simply one culture or group.

What’s important about our diversity is that each member of The Connection brings a unique aspect of integrity and determination to ASUNM. There are many issues that we do not agree with each other on; however, we are all free thinkers and we would not be diverse if we agreed with each other simply for the sake of winning an election. We would not be individuals of character if we suppressed our feelings and beliefs to say what is popular, instead of what is right.

This is why, as the saying goes, timing is everything. We want the UNM community to see that true diversity cannot be found with The People before showing the UNM community what we are all about. So what are we about?

The Connection is about fighting hard for the students at UNM. We are about working to ensure that every student on the UNM campus feels safe, day or night. We are about working to make sure that the New Mexico state legislature realizes the importance of the lottery and bridge scholarships to New Mexico students. We are about ensuring that every student organization has a senate representative in ASUNM who will fight for every student organization, realizing that every student group is as important as the next. We are about supporting Amendment 1, which gives unused student fee money back to the students.

We are about instilling every student with so much pride in UNM that, if cut, we’d all bleed Lobo red.

Steve Aguilar

Vice presidential candidate

The Connection