CSUN primaries Wednesday, Thursday

February 28, 2011 by Ian Whitaker 

Presidential candidate drops out leaving incumbent, former director in face-off

This year’s primary Executive Board elections for the undergraduate student government present a familiar cast of characters.

Incumbent David Rapoport is challenged by former Elections Director Sarah Saenz for the presidency in the elections taking place Wednesday and Thursday.

Annastasia Koerner will announce her departure of the race for president at the CSUN Senate meeting today, citing unpreparedness for the position.

“I just think there is so much more that I need to learn first, before I can be the best leader for CSUN,” she said.

Rapoport and Saenz are headlining rival tickets whose candidates are all running for the same offices.

Geoffrey Moran is running on Saenz’s ticket for vice president against Arianne Freeman, who is partnering with Rapoport. They are both being contested by Andrew Spivak.

The position of senate president is being contested by four candidates, making it the largest race of the primary.

Any candidate who garners 50 percent or more of the popular vote in the primaries will win the election outright.

Ian Whitaker reports on CSUN student government for The Rebel Yell. Contact him at asstnews@unlvrebelyell.com

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CSUN Executive Board Primary Elections

Vote Wednesday or Thursday
9 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Online through MYUNLV or at any campus polling location

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President

ANNASTASIA KOERNER

Withdrawn

DAVID RAPOPORT

The incumbent undergraduate student body president, Rapoport is running to keep his position on the executive board.

He is campaigning on a platform of experience alongside fellow CSUN members Laura Guidry and Arianne Freeman.

“I have the most experience in student government and students can expect that experience to grow over the years,” Rapoport said.

Rapoport has held a number of positions within CSUN, beginning in 2008, when he sat as a senator for the college of business. He was appointed director of Nevada Student Affairs and lost a bid for vice president in 2009.

He was elected vice president one year ago but succeeded to the presidency when no presidential candidate remained viable.

“Our goal right now is to educate students,” Rapoport said. “I want more students to be involved with what CSUN does.”

Rapoport said that he believes UNLV students have shouldered the burden of budget cuts for long enough and that the current funding proposals by Gov. Brian Sandoval is asking too much of students.

Moreover, he said that student morale is at an all-time low and CSUN can address it.

“My view is that student government should do as much as possible to build that morale back up,” he said. “I’ve tried to have proposals that would turn UNLV into a campus community.”

Rapoport will be a senior next year in the business major. He is a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity.

SARAH SAENZ

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Saenz is a psychology major in her fourth year at UNLV and a member of Sigma Omega Nu, an interest group that is currently working to become recognized as the next Latina sorority on campus.

Saenz made her decision to run for undergraduate student body president recently, which required that she resign from her previous post of director of CSUN Elections, a position now occupied by 2009-2010 Elections Director Vincent Lipari.

She is running on a ticket with Matthew Fennell and Geoffrey Moran, under the campaign tagline “Students Made First.”

“I want to be the link between the students and CSUN,” Saenz said of her goals to make CSUN more visible to students.

Saenz and her ticket-mates are running on a platform of open communication between student government and the student body, which they say is lacking in the current administration.

“A lot of students don’t even know they have a president,” she said. “If elected, I am going to be their voice.”

Saenz also said she believes that the student body is not being involved with pressing issues such as budget cuts and that she would work to change that.

“We took our individual ideas and put them together,” Saenz said of her running mates. “My focus is on [informing students] and making sure they are involved.”

Along with her prior experience as Elections director, Saenz served as assistant director of Elections last year.

Senate President

MATTHEW FENNELL

With a campaign tagline of “Students Made First,” Fennell is sharing a ticket with Geoffrey Moran and Sarah Saenz.

Involved with the Rebel Pride Council and the LEAD Team, Fennell said that he thinks his experience interacting with and leading others will make him a perfect fit for the CSUN Senate president position.

“I really want to give the Senate a more professional feel,” he said, “and make sure that everyone in the senate is being responsible and spreading the word about CSUN.”

Fennell is running on his campaign’s general message of close interaction between students and CSUN.

“I think its time that UNLV steps up,” Fennell said. “In order for students to be informed, CSUN and its senators need to inform them.”

“I really want to push to inform all students at UNLV, especially with budget cuts,” he said.

Although the Executive Board holds office hours in the CSUN offices where they are open to the public, Fennell said he believes that not enough students are taking advantage of these times.

He plans to organize tabling events for Executive Board members and reserve space in the buildings of various colleges around campus for students to ask questions and get to know their representatives better.

“Feel free to talk to us,” Fennell said. “We are always open and willing to talk to you.”

LAURA GUIDRY

The current CSUN Director of Nevada Student Affairs, Guidry is a political science major in her third year at UNLV and a former senator of liberal arts. She is also an active member of the College Republicans, having previously served as director of internal relations there.

Guidry shares a ticket with presidential incumbent David Rapoport and vice presidential candidate Arianne Freeman.

“I want to give senators tools to reach out to constituents directly,” Guidry said. “I also want to come up with an innovative way to reach out students.”

She said that her plan is multifaceted and takes advantage of the existing RAVE e-mail system to keep students up to date with CSUN events as well as provide senators with their own space to communicate with students in their respective colleges.

“This is the Internet age and that’s where most students get their information,” Guidry said.

In addition to an increase in advertising and marketing, Guidry would like to see produced a podcast or live broadcast of CSUN senate meetings.

Guidry said that she believes it is vital that students play an active role in CSUN and that university leaders and officials should come to meetings and speak directly to student government.

“Senators should hold the administration accountable,” she said. “Senators are the direct link to students.”

JEMMA JONES

Born in England and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, until the age of 18, Jones said she fell in love with Las Vegas and decided to pursue a film major with a minor in theatre studies.

She has been a member of the UNLV improv troupe Jest Serendipity since she was a freshman and was elected chair of the Tonopah Complex in the Resident Hall Association.

She currently serves as a senator for the college of liberal arts and is a member of the Honors College.

“I believe that the Senate president should inspire all of the CSUN family to become the most outstanding leaders they can be in order to represent the students as best they can,” Jones said in a statement.

“Every [Senate] meeting makes me more excited to be a senator in CSUN,” she said.

If elected, she said she hopes to be able to help other senators feel the same way.

“I think that a lot of students don’t really know what they can do to make CSUN or [their college experience] better,” she said.

Jones said her goal if elected is to make students associate CSUN with positive progress and to restore their confidence in student government.

She also said that the Senate president ought to have integrity and personal skills.

“I’m just excited to be a positive representative for CSUN,” she said. “I want to continue to raise awareness for student government and make sure every student knows what CSUN is.”

MICHAEL RUBIN

“Growing up in Chicago, Ill., I was taught to be held accountable for your actions and I hold this close to my heart,” Rubin said in a statement.

He is a hotel administration senator who says that he is running for the Senate presidency because someone needed to take the initiative in student government in order to make a difference in students’ lives.

“I feel by running for Senate president I can [be a leader] that not only would help to lead the way in creating that community, but also be the mouth piece of this campus to help put the bite back into its bark in the fight against budget cuts,” Rubin said in an e-mail.

Rubin also said that he wishes to fight improper spending in CSUN and that money spent by the organization should only be used to advance student interests.

“A sense of community is what needs to be brought to this campus,” Rubin stated.

By hosting smaller events more regularly and placing focus on campus unity, he explained, “we will not only become more powerful in the way we do things at UNLV but be a stronger voice overall to the state of Nevada.”

Rubin said that he thinks that CSUN’s purpose is to ensure a vibrant student body that can rally together in times of crisis.

“I think the goal of this campus is to get rid of the apathy at UNLV and to turn it into a functioning community of students,” Rubin stated.

Vice President

ARIANNE FREEMAN

Freeman is currently the vice president pro-tempore and a senior double majoring in criminal justice and health care administration.

Freeman holds the office of president of the UNLV chapter of sorority Alpha Gamma Delta and is a member of Alpha Phi Sigma, a national criminal justice society.

She is running as part of a ticket including current President David Rapoport and Senate president candidate Laura Guidry.

“My biggest goal is to foster greater communication between senators and directors,” Freeman said. “I feel like we are one big government instead of three different branches.”

The vice president’s responsibilties center on overseering the eight CSUN directors, who command a large part of the undergraduate student government’s budget, upon Senate approval.

“I’d also like to see a lot more transparency from the directors,” Freeman said.

She said that she will continue to work to broaden the scope of CSUN’s scholarships, including developing more scholarships and producing more scholarship applications.

She also said she would like to see a more concerted effort to make students aware of CSUN events and that CSUN should also diversify their event lineup in order to cater to all student interests.

“We should support every part of the campus,” she said, “not just the main one.”

GEOFFREY MORAN

Geoffrey Moran currently holds office as a senator for the college of hotel administration, but you may see him working behind the Student Union Infodesk from time to time.

Moran is campaigning for vice president alongside running mates Sarah Saenz and Matthew Fennell, on a platform of bringing openness to student government affairs.

“As vice president, I really want to be more visible to students,” Moran said. “I want students to feel comfortable enough to come and talk to me.”

Moran said that members of the Executive Board should take the initiative in reaching out through activities like tabling, appearing before classes and fielding questions from students.

“Another thing I want to implement is executive board evaluations,” he said. “You don’t know what you are doing wrong until someone tells you.”

Moran said that he would like to see student government take a more proactive stance towards budget cuts, including starting a letter-writing campaign and partnering with the student governments of the College of Southern Nevada, Nevada State College and the University of Nevada, Reno.

“I think there is so much more that we could be doing,” he said. “The situation is dire and I want to make it known that we care.”

ANDREW SPIVAK

Spivak is a junior studying finance with minors in political science and in leadership and civic engagement.

He came to UNLV in 2006, then took a year and a half off for work and personal reasons. He is an alumnus of Alpha Epsilon Pi and thinks Greek Life plays an essential role in campus life.

“I’m running because I’m concerned about the future of our school,” Spivak said.

He said he wants to see CSUN scholarships expanded to include students taking summer classes.

“Aid for summer classes is very limited,” he said. “Students who take summer classes are going to school year-round and often are those who need aid the most.”

Spivak also said that he thought the CSUN art and literary journal the “Vagus Nerve” should return to its original format as a platform for UNLV art students to publish their work.

Though he has many ideas on how to improve the efficiency of CSUN and its policies, Spivak admits that the budget cuts are the top issue facing student government.

“I think the two most important things are being organized against the budget cuts and being prepared to fight them,” Spivak said, “as well as being prepared to deal with the ramifications and what it means for students if any budget cuts are passed.”

“As students, we are the ones who hold the leverage in the battle of the budget cuts,” he said. “We have the chance to shape our university for generations.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: The CSUN primaries were originally stated in this piece to take place on March 1-2. The primaries actually took place March 2-3, Wednesday and Thursday.