Position: President
Name: Jamie Miller
Year: Junior
Major: Business
Why did you decide to run for A.S President?
I decided to run for Associated Students because I love SDSU and I feel like it’s an amazing place. I know that there’s so many different communities on campus and I really wanted to be able to serve as the voice of these communities, be able to reach out to these individuals and make sure that their voice is heard. I’m just really proud to be a part of this campus. I’d love to give back and I think that this is a great way to do that.
What would you change in A.S.?
A couple things that my team and I really want to work on this year is creating an environment where students can come to us to voice their concerns and what’s going on in their organizations. That’s something that my team and I are really passionate about. We want to help and want to address these issues. Another way we can improve upon this is really empowering our council members. Making sure that they are going to student organizations. We are required to attend an outside organization’s meetings and a lot of times that just looks like us going to the meeting. A lot of the council members aren’t aware that you’re supposed to go there and report what A.S. is, what we’re doing and how we can help their organization.
What would you like to change at SDSU?
I think what I’d like to change about SDSU is allowing students to have a safe space to have these conversations that are going on. For instance, the CSU chancellor came to campus (March 2) and I was able to sit through that. There was a protest going on because we have a lot of really passionate students and faculty on campus who are trying to bring to life the Black Lives Matter movement on campus and how that looks here. I think that they need to have a safe space where they can have these conversations more often and not just wait for big events like this on campus.
How did you get involved with A.S.?
When I went to orientation my first year, I stumbled upon this booth and overheard one of the executives at the time talking about this program called the First Year Leadership Experience Team. I applied for it, got the position and through that was able to be a designee on the Aztec Student Union Board. I fell in love with that board after my first meeting and after that I decided to run for Aztec Student Union Board Representative. I served in that position throughout my sophomore year and then this year I am chairing the board. It has just truly been an amazing experience. You get to meet so many people on campus and make just even small changes in people’s lives.
What do you like and dislike about A.S.?
What I like about A.S. is the fact that it’s constantly having new leaders come through, so you’re constantly getting different perspectives on how an organization should be run or how to make it better. It’s a really great space for students to grow personally and professionally.
Something I think A.S. really needs improvement on is reaching out and making their presence to known to a wider range of communities. We have the same communities that we are constantly working with and constantly the voice of, but there are all these other communities including commuter students and graduate students. We need to make sure that they know what’s going on on campus, that they know who their representatives are and that they feel as though they are supported by A.S., and I feel like that’s something we can really improve on.
What accomplishments do you have?
Prior to me taking this role as Chair of Aztec Student Union Board, there wasn’t a whole lot of collaboration between committees because people were just utilizing their teams and something that I was really passionate about was collaboration across all campus. So one of the events, where I was just literally beaming because I was so proud of my team’s work, was when we brought Lea DeLariah, an actress on “Orange is The New Black,” to campus and she talked about some of the LGTBQ issues on campus that can be seen and embracing different communities in general. We worked with the Pride Center, the Women’s Resource Center, Center for Intercultural Relations and just a wide variety of people.
I had the opportunity to be one of two undergraduate students from SDSU to attend the National Collegiate Leadership Conference at the University of Arizona. After attending the conference, I was asked to sit on the Student Advisory Committee for the 2016 Leadership Summit and help implement some of the ideas that we took away from the national conference. It was a great feeling to see this year’s Leadership Summit come to life and give students an opportunity for professional development and networking.
I also attended Aztec Core, which is basically a retreat for student leaders across campus.
