Her Campus was able to sit down with The Team’s President and Vice President candidates, Will Royster and Matt Fidel, to discuss the upcoming CSG elections. After chatting with them, we got to know learn a little bit more about them and their campaign. Here’s what they had to say!
Her Campus: Where are you from?
Will Royster: I’m from Kalamazoo, Michigan – born and raised. I came to Ann Arbor for a little bit, but then moved back. But it never stopped feeling like home.
Matt Fidel: I’m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – grew up there my whole life. I went to Taylor Allderdice High School.
HC: What do you guys like to do in your free time?
WR: I write a lot of poetry, I like to read, listen to jazz music, and I free-style a lot. Anything musically involved is something I like.
MF: I enjoy playing basketball – I played in high school. I like hanging out with friends, and playing NBA 2K.
HC: How was The Team formed?
WR: The team was created to have the most diverse slate that we possibly could. That slate, today, is comprised of people from Make Michigan, from FORUM (last year’s party), and people who weren’t on CSG. So this way, we can have all 3 perspectives within The Team. And when you have all three perspectives on one slate working together on the same goals, you are going to get the best results.
HC: Looking through The Team’s website, you guys clearly have a lot of goals you would like to accomplish if elected. What is the most personally relevant or important goal to you?
WR: Personally, I would say that my most relevant goal is the app that we created where students can log into to see what else is going on around campus. Too often, we get caught up in our own communities. One of the most beautiful things about this campaign is that I have been able to go to many different communities and see what they’re doing and see what I’ve been missing – and I’ve been here for a long time! So, if we can create that platform for students who are coming in, so they can see what events and what communities they have the ability to go to – that would a beautiful thing that we can leave on campus that is tangible and feasible. So I’m really looking forward to that.
MF: I think we have a lot of great ideas on our platform, but I think the most important thing that we are going to bring to CSG – when we win – is changing the culture of CSG. Making CSG a more collaborative body, a more empowering body, where we really raise up student leaders across campus. We don’t work to achieve things so we can take credit for them; we are just a bunch of students working to make change on our campus. I think that is the most valuable takeaway from our campaign. I think CSG has not been doing a good job at representing all of our communities on campus, I don’t think CSG has been doing a good job at empowering student leaders to achieve the most change that we can on campus – and I think it’s time that we change that.
HC: Generally speaking, what makes The Team’s platform different than Make Michigan’s platform? How should students differentiate between the two?
MF: I think the biggest difference between the two parties is that The Team has demonstrated that we don’t just talk the talk, but we walk the walk. We have a proven track record of using our various platforms and leadership positions to advance the causes that we say we care about. On CSG, I helped to plan the police brutality speak out in collaboration with the Black Student Union and Students of Color of Rackham. I created a program with the dining department to allow students to donate their left over Blue Bucks at the end of the year to a local food pantry. So, we are not just talking about what we are going to do in the future, but we have done in the past that shows our leadership skills and our dedication to change.
WR: Our platform is the extension of the work that we have been doing and that we have been involved in. I am actually working on the race and ethnicity requirement for students, with the Black Student Union already. I built a $20,000 program to bring 42 underrepresented students to campus this April. So, I think of authenticity and credibility, and as Matt said, a proven track record of doing these things. I think [both parties] care about diversity, I think we all care about sexual assault, and I think we all have good ideas. However, I think ours are better, and we have a proven track record of execution – and that’s not something that’s an idea, that’s something that’s facts.
HC: It seems that sexual assault education and prevention are a main point of your platform. Can you guys speak about your position on the topic and the ideas behind it, namely the Companion app that you have proposed?
MF: Absolutely. We realize that this [app] is something that is just going to graze the surface of the sexual assault epidemic of our campus. We understand that education and increased awareness is the way to help prevent sexual assault on campus, rather than just “some app.” However, we believe that this is an important first step. The Companion app is actually a project developed by Michigan engineers and entrepreneurs, which essentially allows students to check in with their friends when they are walking home late at night. Students can select a group of friends that will receive a text message when they are leaving, say the Ugli, and heading back to their dorm. Those friends will receive a text message saying “Matt is leaving the Ugli to go home now,” and if Matt does not arrive at that destination safely, those friends will get a text message saying “Oh no, Matt is in trouble” and the authorities will be alerted. So we’re talking a great, common sense idea. I think CSG, again, should be empowering these student ideas and student innovations, and allow them to use CSG as a platform to advance these great ideas.
WR: Just to add on, CSG is a place for innovation, for ideas to thrive. We should be empowering students who believe in entrepreneurship. So, we really want to power that and encourage that, but as Matt said, it’s only going to graze the surface. What we are really going to try and focus on, once elected, is to create a cultural shift. I was privileged to give the keynote address at the recent Culture Shift Event held at Trotter Multicultural Center. We really stressed the importance of the way we think about survivors and their stories and about sexual assault prevention in general, and how we have so much learning to do on campus; how I continuously had to refer to the experts from SAPAC, from I WILL, about the correct terminology and statistics because I just didn’t know at that time. So, continuing that into the presidency, that’s something Matt and I really believe in – it’s finding experts and finding those people who have that expertise. To give them that platform so when people ask about sexual assault, I’m not saying what I want to say, I’m saying what’s actually knowledgeable and going to the experts –
MF: – letting the experts driving the policy on these issues. Being able to be humble enough to reach out to the experts and recognize that we are not the experts on every issue. But as leaders, being able to reach out and empower other people who are the experts on certain issues, so they can help create and drive the policy on this campus, rather than us just thinking what we know is right.
HC: You guys seem to have an overall theme of connection and transparency between CSG and students. Can you shed some light on this topic?
WR: Looking from the outside in, this year, and most of my years, I haven’t known what CSG has been up to. A lot of the student body thinks that CSG has been stagnant, and we need that transparency between the executives and the student body. Their voices are the ones that matter, but if they don’t even see us, and if they don’t feel like they have a relationship with us, then they’re never gonna reach out, they’re never going to be able to provide those ideas. And those are the ideas that we want to implement. We want to be happy to see people, we want to hear about stuff, we want to continue to inspire students. But we don’t want to do that from the office of CSG. We want to do that with and around the students.
MF: We think that in the past, CSG has been a distant organization – simply it hasn’t shared a lot of face time with the students. And that’s why Will and I have committed to having a bimonthly email-video-podcast-type deal, where students can opt in to hear from us, see what we’re working on, hear what we’re working on. But also, through the text-message hotline that we proposed, students will have an avenue to tell us what they’re concerned about, what they want to see done on campus. Or if they really liked our outfit that day, they can tell us that, too! But just giving students an easy way to get in touch with their elected representatives, who need to be representing the students’ voices, to make their voices heard is a big priority for The Team.
HC: Overall, why are you passionate about being part of CSG and representing the students of Michigan?
WR: I am extremely passionate because I am dedicated to serving. I am so humble in approaching this because, as a student here, people have invested in me. People have taught me, and brought me under their wing. Now I have this great opportunity to serve – when The Team came to me and asked me to be the presidential candidate, I was like “Well, why aren’t you running?!” That was my initial reaction because they’re campus leaders. But, now is the time when people believe in me, and I’ve served, and I have that track record, and now, this platform can give me the tools to empower other people, to show them how to do it, to do the same thing, to teach somebody how to raise $20,000, how to create their own program, how to instill change in their community and across campus in general. I’ve been here, and I’ve learned, and I’ve executed; now I want to give that back because that’s what was given to me.
MF: To echo off of that, I’ve served on CSG for the past year and I see the immense potential of CSG. I think that I’ve done a lot of work on CSG this year and I see the potential of doing more. But I also see the potential of having a better CSG, a better culture on campus that really starts with CSG. And I think that it’s our goal, it’s The Team’s goal, to ensure that we fix that and do better. When we pool our resources and work together rather than working against each other, we can use our resources so much more efficiently, we can do so much more. Our collective potential is so much better and greater than our individual and I think it’s time for CSG to really be a driver of change and a driver of collaboration, rather than one that stifles it.
HC: Can you give us a word or phrase that describes yourself, and why you’re the best choice for CSG?
MF: Hmm, how about, willingness to listen.
WR: Inspired servant. That’s what I think I am, that’s what all of this is for – giving back.
During this election cycle, Her Campus at the University of Michigan is choosing not to endorse any political party on campus. We encourage all of our readers and the entire campus to explore each party’s platforms. You can check out our interview with Make Michigan’s reps here! Don’t forget to vote in the CSG elections March 25th and 26th at vote.umich.edu!