CUSG 2023 Student Body President Elections: Everything you need to know
Editor’s note: The Butterfly Effect has announced to withdraw their ticket from the position by the time The Bold was set to publish this article. They will still remain on the ballot, but their votes will not be counted in the final results, according to the CUSG Election Commission.
About The Election:
University of Colorado’s Student Government (CUSG) is said to be one of the most autonomous student governments in the country, overseeing an estimated $27 million in student fees. The body has 3 branches; The Executive branch, comprising the shared three student body president positions, elected in each Spring semester to one year terms. The Legislative Branch comprises the Representative Council and the Council of Colleges and Schools (CCS). Representative Council is composed of nine members who serve one-year terms, with five representatives elected in the Fall and four representatives elected in the Spring session. The Legislative Council’s primary duty besides proposing legislation is to approve the final CUSG budget, a task that has become contentious given CUSG’s current debt and consequent budget deficit. The third branch is the judicial branch which is tasked with overseeing court cases within CUSG and infraction tribunals after each election season.
The Spring 2023 Election began with a kick-off event on Farrand Field, Monday, April 3, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. All students are eligible to vote in the Spring Election until April 7.
More information on elections and voting can be found here:
https://www.colorado.edu/cusg/cusg-elections
https://cuboulder.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a43jIPS6YF0gbIi
The Bold had the opportunity to interview the two tickets running to take the office of CUSG’s Tri-Executives. CUSG’s Legislative and Executive branch relations have been decreasing over the last year. The winning ticket will have to work expeditiously to repair and restore a somewhat fractured government that faces a $2 million budget deficit, while at the same time ensuring the student body feels heard in their concerns over safety on campus and student government transparency. The Bold questioned the candidates on the issues most relevant to the general student population.
The Candidates:
Vision CUSG: The Vision ticket is composed of Chase Cromwell, a Junior, majoring in Political Science, with minors in leadership studies, speech, and language and hearing sciences, Narayana Bretholtz, a Sophomore, studying Political Science and Anthropology and Gaby Aguijosa, a Junior, studying Economics. Vision’s primary campaign platform is campus community, transparency and student growth, according to their website.
Butterfly Effect: The Butterfly Effect ticket is composed of Crisol Guzman Corral, a Junior, studying Psychology, Spanish for the Professions, and Business, Casandra Garcia Vega, a Junior studying International Affairs with a concentration in Latin America, Political Science,and Multicultural Leadership and Brittany Gutierrez Zacarias, a Junior, studying Psychology with a Korean minor. Their campaign platforms are transparency, accessibility, campus safety, education and comunidad, according to their campaign instagram.
Candidate Q&A:
If your ticket wins, what are some specific ways you’d implement your agenda and initiatives?
Butterfly Effect:
Butterfly Effect’s Garcia Vega emphasized Comunidad, saying that the ticket sought to bring specific parts that make them unique into the student government.
Zacarias elaborated that their campaign vision is staked upon five pillars: transparency, accessibility, education, campus safety, comunidad, or community.
Garcia Vega explained the ticket’s goals for fostering an inclusive campus environment.
“We want to really build a safe foundation where people can come and feel like they’re at home, even when they’re far away from home. And when I say like everyone, I really do mean everyone, and, we’ve seen that, you know, CU hasn’t been the best in promoting inclusivity so that’s one of our goals as well.”
Vision:
According to Bretholtz, she wants to prioritize making washers and dryers in the dorms free for students.
“ This is actually very easily doable and implemented through adding it to the overall cost of tuition itself, or allocating some funds.”
Cromwell commented on his campaign’s organization and agenda, “We want to talk about CUSG and what CUSG can do better. We want to talk about campus life for freshmen. We talk about classroom life, classroom support. We want to talk about campus community life, outside the classroom but still on campus, and we want to talk about off campus life.”
Working alongside and in coordination with Legislative Council is a large role of the Executive Branch in CUSG. How does your ticket plan to effectively work with Legislative Council to initiate your agenda and how might the ticket overcome difficulties with the Council?
Butterfly Effect:
Guzman Corral claimed her past experiences in the Legislative branch will help the ticket work alongside the branch.
“Fortunately for myself, I have had experience of working on the side of Legislative Council and working with executives. So, I feel like that experience alone is going to help me a lot if we win,” Guzman Corral said.
Vision CUSG:
Similarly, Cromwell also expressed how his past experiences with the Legislative branch will be beneficial to the ticket.
“From my perspective, I’ve been through two very different legislative councils. I was hired first at CU during a strike that turned into Chancellor’s Agreement changes, that turned into true vitriol that was and continues to turn into true vitriol between the two branches. They didn’t talk to each other, they didn’t like each other, they stole each other’s work at every possible opportunity,” Cromwell said.
“During that legislature, I passed the resolution thanking the new Ralphie for her first successful season. So it’s kind of a joke, but I passed it, I worked with legislators across the aisle, I got things done,” he added.
Bretholtz emphasized communication and recognizance of one another’s duties and abilities. “Really, the humanizing aspects of all of it, really trying to make sure that both the legislative branch and the executive see each other as human beings who are going through a range of different experiences throughout it and just really trying to work together collaboratively in order to overcome those things and support each other instead of having that animosity.”
Concerns over safety and security have been on the minds of students more often recently than one might say is normal. Would your ticket pursue resolutions urging action on safety concerns or has the University’s responses been adequate?
Butterfly Effect:
The ticket emphasized the issue with CU’s alert messages. “In light of the alerts that we’ve gotten, especially the last couple weeks with the three alerts we got, I do find an issue,” Brittany Gutierrez answered, “I think what put me off the most from getting those texts was the last one that they sent where they said to resume normal activities.”
“It didn’t sit right with me because we shouldn’t have to experience things like this. We should not be normalizing stuff like this, situations like this,” Gutierrez added.
Vision:
Vision’s Gaby Aguijosa said that their ticket would focus greatly on improving communication channels with local law enforcement. “I think a large part of it is starting to communicate more with Boulder PD and just seeing what we can do with them and advocating for our students on what platforms we can hear alerts from them, or we can see alerts from them.”
Cromwell emphasized a tight knit CUSG and Boulder Police Department relationship. “We’re working on executive branch conversations, our biggest outcome is going to be that we have a lot of the bandwidth to go meet with Chief Jokerst and the Chancellor and whoever else we need to voice those concerns and create some actual change on these kinds of issues, outside of writing a letter and signing it.”
Vision steadfastly emphasized communicating with transparency over safety concerns, wanting to establish regular channels of correspondence with local law enforcement.
“When an incident happens, we can establish and continue to establish the existing precedent that something significant happens, within a week, we will sit down with Chief Jokerst and talk about what happened and why did things play out the way they did, and here’s what students are concerned about,” Cromwell said.
Students on the Boulder Campus cite a lack of transparency and knowledge of what their student government does for them as their biggest disconnect with CUSG. What would your ticket do to counter a lack of transparency concerns and communicate changes and actions CUSG takes in support of the student population?
Butterfly Effect:
The ticket said the would aim to have meeting minutes, legislations and town halls to bridge the gap between the student body and CUSG.
“I am aware there is a lack of transparency in student government and so being able to do things like detailed meeting minutes, so that students are aware of the policies, decisions that are being made, legislation that is being made, as well as some type of town hall,” said Guzman Corral. “[Those are] ways for us to be able to connect with the student body directly, not just through Instagram posts or emails, a one-on-one conversation with students.”
Garcia Vega elaborated the ticket’s platform with a message for aiding transparency. “Come, be part of it. Tell us what you think. Sit down and do these things, even if you are not going to participate in student government, even if you don’t have the time for it. Come and listen, come and read about it, come and learn about it so that you are informed about the things you can do.” she said.
Vision:
In regards to her ticket’s central pillar of transparency, Bretholtz said setting up modes of communication between CUSG and the student body that are effective is essential. “Currently, those modes aren’t being effective, most of the student body has no idea that CUSG exists. So, trying to figure out a way to increase our presence within the student body and make ourselves known to either individual students or student organizations, clubs. Let them know that we’re here and we’re making quick decisions,” she said.
CUSG has seen many Tri-Executives in its history. What do you bring to the Tri-Exec role that is unique to you or not found commonly in leadership?
Butterfly Effect:
The Butterfly Effect ticket emphasized their past experiences with leadership and commitment to the students.
“I know that I bring to the table experience in student government t and the experience of working with admin and the Regents, and being able to take them head on even if they don’t agree with what we have to say,” Guzman Corral said to The Bold, “Because, at the end of the day, we’re advocates for students, not advocates for the Regents.”
Gutierrez claims her newcomer status would help her ticket work for change. “I’ve taken a lot of leadership positions before but nothing really ever like student government before, and I think I’ve found a way of leadership that’s kind of different than I’ve seen in CUSG.”
Garcia Vega: “I think that my way of really being successful in a leadership position is by helping others and by making sure that their success is what they want it to be.”
Vision:
The candidates with the Vision ticket emphasized how their identities and personal experiences will aid them in their leadership styles.
Aguijosa: “I’m a Latina first generation student, and also a transfer student, which is just like a whole lot, all in one. I’ve had a really interesting experience at CU, and that hasn’t been the easiest, but it’s definitely made me even more driven to look for different resources on my own, and find a place on campus. And I really want to help other students like me who are struggling to find their place on campus do that, and I think these identities are not commonly found in leadership positions, especially in higher education. I really want to speak up for students who are underrepresented, and be approachable and let them know that I am here,” Aguijosa said.
Bretholtz: “I am a Hispanic Jewish woman, and I’ve grown up with a lot of conflicting identities. I grew up with a half Jewish half Spanish Catholic household, and we are a low income family. I’m here on scholarship, and that is the only way that I have been able to afford CU and living here,” Bretholtz said. “So, I think that whole experience helps lead, from being in a position of being low-income and on scholarship and what that really means to students,” she added.
Cromwell: “It does say a lot that we’re at a point where a deaf individual is running for Tri-Exec,” Cromwell said, “It’s kind of weighed on me a lot to think about, the way that accessibility policy functions, so often relies on the good faith and good will of able-bodied people to see it and try their best to make something else happen. So, I am really excited by the opportunity to be the first deaf Tri-Executive, and bring a true, lived experience for some kind of accessibility needs and disability rights, and also open the door to include that community so much more in the work that we do.”
