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Absentee voting for undergraduate senator spots begins today and the Team You slate hopes to outwit the other candidates for the sought-after Associated Students of New Mexico seats.
Ten student politicians will run with the Team You for ASUNM for this semester’s senate elections. One incumbent ASUNM senator and nine first-time candidates are campaigning with the slate.
First-time candidate Ayham Maadi said Team You will equally represent the interests of UNM students of all demographics.
“We wanted to make a group that is more representative of the student demographic, not just culturally, ethnically or even major-wise, but also holistically,” he said. “We took into consideration … what the students were involved in on campus. People in our team have diverse passions.”
Maadi, who is pursuing a double major in chemical engineering and languages, said that although his slate shares Aspire’s desire to improve the University, Team You plans to address campus issues in a different manner. He said his slate would prioritize academics and scholarships.
“We recognize that the overarching problems for UNM are graduation rates, first-year retention rates and the Lottery Scholarship,” he said. “We focus on those long-term goals and forward that agenda because pretty soon, the Lottery would run out if nothing’s done.”
Sam Greenblatt, another newbie in the ASUNM scene, said Team You plans to initiate a student-loan forgiveness program with the help of other ASUNM officials and legislators. He said it also aims to provide incentives to students who could graduate in four years.
But Greenblatt, a chemical engineering major, said his slate also aims to solve the little problems students have on campus, such as teacher evaluations, Wi-Fi access and parking.
“Parking, especially for students coming out of campus, is a pain,” he said. “There are multiple parking lots on campus that are overflowed. For the people living on campus — this is their home — who have to park on the other side of campus, it’s a little bit absurd.”
Through its campaign, Team You plans to increase student involvement on campus especially when it comes to the University’s finances, Greenblatt said.
“I wasn’t really involved in campus politics or things of that nature at the beginning of all of these,” he said. “But as I went on, I realized that less people was involved in what was going on with student fees and on how all this money was appropriated. This became important to me, to voice my opinion.”
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Greenblatt said Team You has an edge against Aspire because of its diversity.
Also, newcomer Kaitlyn Loafman, an elementary education major, said the fact that most candidates with Team You are ASUNM novices will be advantageous for the senate.
“I believe it is good to have a mix of the newcomers and the incumbents in the senate,” she said. “New issues arise, so it’s good to have people in there who know what they’re doing and can guide newcomers along, but also people with fresh ideas that haven’t been seen before.”
ASUNM Sen. Colt Balok, the only incumbent in Team You, said his experience will play a huge role in Team You’s victory. Balok, who was elected in the fall semester of 2012 and has served with the Finance Committee, said he has been aiding fellow candidates in the slate during the campaign process.
“My experience will help Team You because I can inform the rest of the team on a lot of questions that they may have for ASUNM and how the process works,” he said. “We’ve been doing study sessions during the last few weeks on all of our agencies and committees … because I want them to be the most proactive students when they are elected as senators.”
Balok said that at the moment, it is hard to predict the results of the elections.
Still, Maadi said he encourages students to participate in the voting process on Wednesday. And he is optimistic about the University’s future, he said.
“We’re very optimistic not for who wins and who doesn’t win, but for the future of the University of New Mexico as a whole,” he said. “We’d love to be, as a team, a part of that future.”
