The AS Board poses on Friday, Oct. 5. Ella Banken//AS Review
By Soleil de Zwart
The Associated Students Board had a late start this year after some of the board members were unable to be present for a portion of the summer training allotted for them. Their first meeting with all seven members present was not until the second official meeting of fall quarter, on Sept. 28.
However, that’s not necessarily unusual. Eric Alexander, associate dean for student engagement and Viking Union director, said the summer position requirements vary depending on who has been elected and what their summer looks like. Most of the positions do not need to be present for all of summer.
“The summer training is something that has evolved every year, it’s different every year,” Alexander said.
For a number of years the board didn’t meet in the summer, and for a number of years the board positions were only nine-month positions, Alexander said. Except for the president which has always been twelve-month.
But these positions might be converted back from twelve-month to nine-month positions in the coming year, Alexander said.
During the election process, Ama Monkah, AS vice president for activities, applied to an internship as a safety net, in case she lost the election, she said. She ended up getting both positions. For the summer, she was interning at Pemco Insurance’s marketing department.
Since she was unable to be present for her training, Monkah received her full training in the two weeks of AS fall staff development.
“Right now it’s pretty stressful,” Monkah said. “It’s the beginning of things still and I’m trying to get used to figuring out my schedule with school and also my job and making sure I know exactly what I’m doing.”
Anne Lee, AS vp for student life, was working full time as a student coordinator for conference and guest housing through university residences.
“I signed on to just do a couple hours in the office each week and that was really to begin meeting with different campus stakeholders,” Lee said.
First meetings are a lot about relationship building, approving committee applications and getting a feel for the office, Lee said.
In an email Genaro Meza, vp for business and operations, said he could not comment since he was not present this summer. He did not respond to a second email clarifying that was the point of the story.
Since all of the AS board positions are elected student positions, these students still have student responsibilities they need to prioritize.
“A lot of students need their summers to make money, so that they can survive the next year,” Alexander said.
Going forward this year’s AS restructure will be critical in revising the AS Board positions.
“The AS needs to consider having the real transparency — which they do, everything is public — the real transparency about they positions and the requirements of the positions. And maybe rethinking how that system may disenfranchise certain students from even being able to run,” Alexander said.
As the AS works to restructure the board, there may be changes ahead to positions that new candidates will run for in Spring 2019.