Get to know: Tim Mousseau

Tim Mousseau, Junior, New Day slate

Editor’s Note: Tim Mousseau is the new presidential candidate for the New Day slate after Michael Thorning dropped out of the race Monday.
Daily Lobo: Tell me about your slate and some of the platforms you guys are promoting.

Tim Mousseau: When we selected senators, we chose individuals for their passion for students and the platforms we’re running on. We brought a lot of new faces on who are passionate about ASUNM. We wanted some of the old and new senators in there and willing to take risks and make a positive change.

DL: What do you guys want to focus on during the next year?

TM: We have three main goals: openness, competitiveness and wellness. Openness is something I focused on. I think a lot of students on campus don’t know what student government is. One big thing we want to do is webcast all Senate meetings. Students can watch as they’re going on, and we also plan on doing an archive.

With competitiveness, any kind of student debt would need to be kept low. Students need to be given successful resources on campus. For example, they need the resource centers to teach them where they are going in life. We want to work on advisement, keeping tuition down and debt low. We want to do a four-year plan with students so they know what it will cost in each of the four years.

And for wellness, our big focus is on bringing a SafeRide program to UNM. Being in Albuquerque, with the DUI problems we have, we want students to feel comfortable that they can get a safe ride home anywhere for free. We want to give students an option to eat healthier on campus. We want to support the student free bus pass. We want to make it a more bike-friendly campus by making more bike paths.

DL: Tell me a little about yourself personally. Where are you from?

TM: I went to high school in Clovis, N.M., but my dad was in the Air Force, so I had the privilege of traveling a lot. I really love traveling. Personally, in my spare time, I like to do art. I paint and I’ve taken some photography classes. I am in the Sigma Chi fraternity, and I’m president of the Interfraternity Council. I was awarded Greek Man of the Year, and I’m part of the honors program on campus.

DL: What will you do to help relations between GPSA and ASUNM?

TM: I think for me, with GPSA, I’m a very relationship-oriented person. We just need to sit down at the beginning of the year and come up with a list of goals that we share for the year. That would really help. I think a weekly meeting with the GPSA president would help to build that relationship, where we can address concerns together.

DL: How are you going to help represent undergraduate students with the UNM administration?

TM: I would love to create more weekly meetings with the administration. I think updating the ASUNM website is very important. That can be used with the administration successfully. We can put student polls on there and things like that. It comes down to building relationships on Day 1 with the administration.