Campus Celebrity: Jack Zwald

Zwald’s passion for politics runs deep and it all began with the lessons he learned from his mother. She served three terms as a council woman on the Oakdale City Council. “She taught me service. She instilled in me a love of civics and a love of giving back,” said Zwald. Since she was a single mother, he grew up going to every political meeting and event. “I’ve been to more board meetings than most Oakdale City Council members,” Zwald joked during the interview.

His political career at UC Davis started before his presidency. As someone who considers himself a strong democrat, he joined Davis College Democrats and worked to revive the club. While still a part of the Davis College Democrats, he served as a Senator for a year. After he termed out, he decided he wanted to run for ASUCD President. “Student politics could use someone with a political mind. Someone who knows how to play the game is essential,” said Zwald. In light of the fee increases and service cutbacks the UC system is facing, Zwald wanted to help make UC Davis more financially stable and better for students.

He set out with a very specific platform aimed at achieving stability for UC Davis and has completed five of the seven goals he set for his term. Among those goals completed are the expanded white-lining privileges and tutoring options. The new white-lining privileges have made it so that UC Davis representatives have reliable and consistent access to UC Regents despite not being apart of the UC Student Association. “I am most proud of access to white-lining privileges. We are not associated with UC Student Association and we are more efficient while spending less money,” stated Zwald. During Zwald’s campaign, he promised to find lost money within the budget and that is exactly what he did when he discovered unused phone lines that were taking up $10,000 of ASUCD funds. The budget investigation uncovered additional funds that can be used for other services and programs, particularly for tutoring. Zwald recognizes that the UC fee increases are causing students to have to work longer to pay for school and that this threatens academic performance. Specifically, the recovered funds from the ASUCD budget have been used to supplement tutoring options and create additional volunteer tutoring programs to complete another part of his platform.

One part of the platform yet to be accomplished is changing minimum progress from thirteen units to twelve units. When asked what obstacles he was facing in achieving this, Zwald stated that he doesn’t have control over university policy, but is working to research and show the Academic Senate that this change would be beneficial for students. He said that he recognized the difficulty in making this change since the shift in minimum progress is not a priority for decision makers. Zwald’s understanding of the complexity of working with another politically organized unit of UC Davis is just one more example of his political skills and why he is capable of accomplishing the change in policy on minimum progress.

Zwald’s future after UC Davis looks just as promising as his political achievements during his terms as ASUCD President. Zwald graduates winter quarter 2011 and has applied to graduate schools such as Texas A&M and NYU School of Government. However, his most recent aspiration is to work after graduation. It would be safe to assume that whichever path Zwald chooses to take he will, undoubtedly, find success.