Candidates for vice president of external relations and vice president of university affairs gathered to debate in the theatre at Montezuma Hall on March 17.
Vice president of university affairs candidates Crystal Sanchez and Sophie Chance addressed how San Diego State has handled issues regarding the Interfraternity Council and laid out their top priorities for the role.
Armando Sepulveda II, who is running unopposed for vice president of external relations spoke on the need for financial security for students and issues surrounding the satellite campus expansion in Mission Valley.
Vice President of University Affairs
Sanchez’s top goals include advocating for students’ needs inside and outside of the classroom, combating campus issues that relate to student health and safety and addressing courses that have been roadblocks for students trying to graduate in four years.
“In my role, I hope to put these top three priorities in order to advocate for students and make going to this campus and getting an education a lot easier on students (mentally) and financially,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez addressing roadblock classes such as statistics 119 and math 120 would aim to help achieve the goal for students to graduate on time.
“These courses are designed for students early on in their careers to get set back on graduation,” she said. “Students need to depend on supplementary instruction and sometimes we don’t have the time and resources to do these things.”
Chance’s top goals include redefining accessibility, reevaluating advising to improve efficiency and quality of advising and providing students more opportunities to explore their interests through research opportunities and student organizations.
By redefining accessibility, Chance said her vision is to help students reduce the costs of attending SDSU.
“That means ensuring that the cost of being a San Diego State student goes way beyond tuition, so that means moving textbooks online and reducing costs in other ways,” she said.
Both candidates addressed issues regarding transparency from school administration and the Interfraternity Council after the death of freshman Dylan Hernandez in November.
Chance said the level of transparency surrounding issues with the IFC and Greek community is important.
“Transparency is something that between administration and SDSU students should be talked about at all times,” she said. “This particular case is confidential for many different reasons and I would like to respect the wishes of the people not only in that chapter but also making the decisions behind this event.”
Sanchez said Greek representation on the presidential task forces created following Hernandez’s death will be important in providing transparency on this issue.
“There is Greek representation sitting on the task force and I think this will be pivotal for all of IFC and all of Greek life in order to move forward,” she said.
Vice President of External Affairs
Sepulveda II said one of his goals is to help ensure financial security for students when it comes to costs outside of the classroom, such as housing and transportation.
“Currently, as it stands, financial aid is at a state where it doesn’t take into consideration basic needs,” he said. “My direct impact is going to be able to ensure financial security working alongside the vice president of financial affairs and figuring out ways in which we can have an all-encompassing financial aid system.”
With the university set to begin its expansion in Mission Valley, Sepulveda II said one of his goals is to address student needs by including the school’s Imperial Valley campus in the conversation.
Sepulveda II said the Imperial Valley campus is sometimes overlooked.
“It’s time for us to include them in the conversation as well on how resources are going to be allocated, how it’s going to impact them directly and I plan to ensure that both campuses we currently have are included in that conversation by listening to their issues,” he said.
Sepulveda II said the school did the best it could in handling the coronavirus pandemic, but did acknowledge student concerns about SDSU staying open later than other universities across the nation.
“A lot of students were frustrated at the fact that we were open longer than other universities, but that was because the resources that we had were still being offered to students who were transitioning away from living at SDSU to going back home,” he said.
A.S. voting begins on March 23 and ends on March 26. Voting is conducted entirely over Webportal.
