As student body elections approach, Mason Wenzel, a junior finance major and student government’s current executive commissioner of finance, and Katie Mastel, a junior marketing major and student government’s current executive commissioner for external affairs, are running unopposed for president and vice president, respectively, of student government.
“Running unopposed has given us the opportunity to not only focus on campaigning but really on getting our plans out there so we can hit the ground running,” Mastel said.
Wenzel expressed the opportunity of running unopposed as time for them to not only campaign but to get more feedback from students and show who they are.
Both described their reason for running as a way to give back to the NDSU community they’re already leaders in. Wenzel described running as the “natural progression” in their leadership at NDSU.
Their platform consists of three main pillars, each pillar containing subpoints of what they want to accomplish in that area.
Finance
The first pillar is finance, and has four subpoints within that pillar: an interactive fee chart, clarify student organization funding, access fee increases and consolidate online class fees into general tuition.
The interactive fee chart would give students a tangible way of seeing where their fees are going, part of the motivation behind this chart is to create more transparency.
Clarifying student organization funding includes giving student organizations more flexibility and opportunity with their budget, allowing student organizations to spend their budgets where they feel there is a need in order to better suit the organization.
Assessing fee increases is looking at the budget and deciding what to do.
“We plan on advocating against any fee increases next school year,” Wenzel said, noting this is the first time in a few years that the budget is balanced, and the candidates see no reason to increase fees during their term as a result.
Community
The next pillar in the candidates’ platform is community.
“This pillar is aiming to strengthen the culture here at NDSU,” Mastel said.
There are also four subpoints to this pillar: Coffee after Class, consolidating the Listserv, a National Achievement Recognition Program and a Sexual Assault Prevention Program.
Coffee after Class is an idea where students would get a chance to talk to faculty and staff in a scenario outside of the office or classroom.
Student government would pass out redeemable vouchers that could be used at any coffee shop on campus, and students would meet with a faculty or staff member to talk about internships or other topics students have questions about. Mastel said this is intended to “open communication lines.”
Consolidating the Listserv would mean turning the mass amounts of daily emails into a weekly newsletter, which would be sent out every Monday with all the information about the coming week within the newsletter.
The National Achievement Recognition Program is intended to honor the organizations on campus, this honoring would include a trophy case where organizations can show their achievements for a period of time, which Mastel said, “can also be used as a recruitment tool” to get students interested in organizations.
The Sexual Assault Prevention Program is intended to educate students through organizational partnership, which would give students more accessible tools and any organizations that participate in the program can receive CSO and finance benefits as an incentive, Mastel said.
Academics
The third pillar of their campaign is academics, with the subpoints: expanding open textbooks, analyzing the cost of scantrons, implementing mid-semester reviews and making graduation requirements consistent.
Expanding the use of open textbooks means making free online textbooks available and making them the required readings for some courses, with a few set up as early as this fall, Wenzel said.
Analyzing the cost of scantrons would simply mean implementing them into the budget, making them cost neutral.
Scantrons would then be available to students in the classroom the day of the test, as opposed to students purchasing the scantrons separately and bringing them to class, which according to Wenzel, provost Ingram would be “happy” to work with and use some of the provost budget to make possible.
The mid-semester review intends to provide more in-depth and helpful feedback to NDSU administration and professors, so students can give their opinion on how well the class is being taught or where there is room for improvement any day of the semester.
Making graduation requirements consistent would mean making every degree equal to 120 credits, Wenzel said this would cut down on unnecessary electives and make it possible for a student to take 15 credits every semester, and be guaranteed a diploma at the end of four years.
Some off-platform ideas the duo has are focusing on improving student senate, increasing healthcare literacy and planting trees in Churchill Field.
Part of these off-platform ideas are reaching out to the student body in ways like holding town hall style meetings in the upcoming year to get more feedback and sending senators out to talk with freshmen during welcome week to get them involved in their campus community from the start. They also hope that this will increase transparency.
Elections take place April 5 and 6. Voting will take place online.