Majors: Finance and Social legal Studies with Entrepreneurship Concentration / Accounting
Minors: None / Business Ethics and Legal Studies
Years in School: Juniors
Campus Involvement:
Blehm: Excelling Leaders Institute Class of 2015, Puksta Scholar, USG (Secretary for Diversity and Inclusive Excellence, Social Sciences Senator, Senate Affairs Committee Chair, Junior Senator), Newman Civic Fellow, Dining Advisory Committee Student Member, Into the Light (Co-Founder), DU Sexual Assault Survivors Fund (Co-Founder), Project X-ITE (Student Advisory Board Member), It’s On Us (Student Advisory Board Member), Clinton Global Initiative Foundation
Meyer: Zeta Beta Tau (Treasurer) , Delta Sigma Pi (Vice-President of Community Service), Beta Alpha Psi, Taylor Student Representative, ZBT CAPE Liaison, Sexual Assault Committee Chair, Ethics Boot Camp Leader, Invictus Initiative Treasure
Why are you running for USG President and Vice President?
B: I’m running because I wanted to give access to more student leaders. I’ve been in USG for the last three years, and it always felt like the President and Vice President were the ones that have access to leadership at school, and [during] my freshman year I was able to form those relationships and so having built the foundation…to make USG the center of campus and a credible body that is meeting with administrators and inserting student’s voices into decision-making because we have capacity to do so.
M: I’ve been in a range of different organizations, especially Greek Life here at DU, and I feel like it’s built up to come together in this big opportunity to step up and take on a leadership role where I can have a broader influence on students and administration, which will allow me to make sure that everyone is happy and thriving.
What makes you qualified to represent the entire student body in their voices, opinions, and frustrations?
B: We, in comparison to our opponents, have the most experience in USG. I’ve been able to see USG at almost every level working for students in executive roles as well as overseeing constituencies for colleges and for classes. Time and again, I think I’ve been able to successfully look at issues on this campus and bring every stakeholder to the table and create sustainable change for their issues.
M: I feel like I’m qualified, because through my undergraduate experience, I’ve really built upon my active listening skills and really being observant. I feel like with this position, there is a lot of listening more than talking that needs to be done. So really having that understanding attitude and being able to maintain respect even within a dialogue [you] maybe disagree with is incredibly valuable. Since I’ve gotten back from abroad, I’ve been sitting in and observing every USG meeting.
What do you think is the biggest weakness in your campaign, and how are you addressing it?
B: In talking to a lot of students, we figured out that a lot of people know us very separately, but not a lot of people know us together. I think that was intentional for both of us, because being a leadership team that represents over 5,000 undergraduates, we figured we might as well come from different spaces so we understand the issues of multiple areas on campus. Even though that also plays to a strength of ours, people tend to only recognize one of us; so, it’s taking everyone a second to say “Oh, you’re running together.”
What are the top three issues you are bringing to the forefront of your platform?
- Mental Health and Substance Abuse: For campus, the Collegiate Running Program is coming. That is essentially a living community of students who want to maintain their sobriety. We started working on how can we ensure that this is available in the fall, because seventeen incoming freshmen indicated that they would like to live in this. We want to make sure that we’re honoring the bravery of these students, because they reached out on their own, and we also want to educate more students, so everyone knows that this is an available resource. University of Denver has a great opportunity to become a campus role-model for a lot more universities in the country. We’ve tried to observe what other universities are doing, so we don’t lose any more students.
- Fraternity and Sorority Life Bill of Rights: [The Bill of Rights] is starting in FSL, but it will essentially be going to all organizations. It pretty much gives FSL a very clear understanding for their rights and responsibilities regarding pledge classes and what’s expected of them and what they can rely on in general. We’re looking at the honor code in ways to highlight what is applicable to orgs like FSL and others. It will create more consistency, so that student organizations know what to expect should something happen.
- Accountable Administration and Student’s Voices: The Chairman of the Student Affairs Committee for the Board of Trustees agreed to do a monthly round table with us should we win. We would bring student leaders to the table…so they can meet with decision makers. This is going to be in a very proactive sense, not a reactive sense. We feel like there’s been a lot of reactiveness by students lately to different changes that have been happening in administration so we really want to make sure that this will be monthly, so that student issues are always brought to the table.
Yes or no, Boone or no Boone?
B & M: No.
It’s more than likely you will not be able to resolve every issue you speak to in your platform? How are you planning to deal with this predetermined failure and prepare the next student body government to continue your legacy?
M: Our attitude right now is that we are going to accomplish everything, because we’ve done a lot of preparation in making sure what we’re putting out to the student body is attainable. It may not be attainable in our term, bur we can start making baby steps to make sure it happens. And creating sustainable actions in what we’re talking about to the student body.
B: One thing we really did when talking to students is [consider] what is actually realistic. Almost every single point on our platform is realistic. We became pretty plugged in to the areas of campus we would be working with and…really laid the groundwork on this because they’re all actionable items.
At the end of the school year, how do you want your leadership team to be remembered?
C: Remembered as the people that believed in a fearlessness of the change that we wanted to see.
M: Authenticity is a big part about what we want to be. We’re not going stop until it’s accomplished. We believe in the power of doing really good work.
Thank you, and good luck!
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