Voter Guide: ASI’s elections for the 2023-2024 school year

ASI Presidential Candidates

On April 13, Cal Poly ASI (Associated Students Incorporated) presidential and Board of Directors candidates spoke to Mustang News about what they want students to know about them and their platforms.

Ben Tucker (he/him)

• Major: Electrical engineering
• Year: Sophomore
• What he wants students to know about him: Tucker is running for president out of devotion to making Cal Poly a better place.
• Platform: “My platform is mental health,” said Tucker. “I think that the mental health of our students is the foremost concern of any government.”

Jake Zylstra

• Major: Agricultural business
• Year: Sophomore
• What he wants students to know about him: “I grew up Christian and have a lot of those traditional values of growing up with 4-H and F-F-A,” said Zylstra.
• Platform: “I’m running on freedom of speech,” said Zylstra. “I hate seeing the deterioration happening on this campus.”

Samuel Andrews (Any Pronouns)

• Major: Environmental Management and Protection
• Year: Senior
• What they want students to know about them: Andrews has been working for ASI since his freshman year and has held five roles in the four years, two of them simultaneously. “I really do want to show that I’m a person who’s capable of advocacy,” said Andrews. “I think that sometimes the student body is sold on a lot and doesn’t receive a lot. I set the all-time student government record in IHC not only for offering and passing the most legislation but also for leading the administration, which did the same. So I really can bring you what you need.”
• Platform: “Campus is not A-D-A accessible, it’s not physically accessible, it’s not mentally accessible, it’s not financially accessible,” said Andrews. “That’s my primary point. In addition to that, there’s been some feelings that transparency by admin and leadership has failed and shared governance has failed. So, that’s something I want to work on within the organization. But then the project I’m most excited about is creating a circular action economy, which in fancy words simplified basically means I wanna take student work that’s already being done and actually implement it on campus, turn it from busy work into something that’s more of a learn-by-doing action, if you will.”

ASI Board of Directors

Alexander Levine (he/him)

• Major: Journalism
• Year: Freshman
• College: College of Liberal Arts (CLA)
• What he wants the students to know about him: Levine has experience in leadership from high school and in his hometown of Portland, Oregon.
• Platform: “I’m running on a platform of just making sure A-S-I is running smoothly and coordinating with Cal Poly to make sure students really know about all of the clubs and activities on campus, making sure clubs have more involvement with A-S-I, to promote social initiatives and mental health initiatives, physical health initiatives, really make sure that there’s a great connection between the student body and the clubs, make sure that students have the opportunity to get involved, more than just at the beginning of the year,” said Levine.

Beckett McVoy (he/him)

• Major: Political science
• Year: Freshman
• College: CLA
• Platform: “I wanna support student wellness as in supporting club sports as much as we can and promoting student mobility as in students not taking cars and doing more eco-friendly and health beneficial methods of transport to campus,” said McVoy.

Scott Druin (they/he)

• Major: Political science
• Year: Freshman
• College: CLA
• What they want the students to know about them: “I’m fun, exciting, but I’m also there for you and always have an open ear,” said Druin.
• Platform: “I am really just running on a platform of advocacy, but I really have a focus on the ESTAP centers, I’ve benefitted from them so much, and I really want to see them in a wider breadth and have the resources they need to be successful,” said Druin.

Siddarth Karth (he/him)

• Major: Computer science
• Year: Junior
• College: College of Engineering (CENG)
• What he wants the students to know about him: “As a current representative and a future potential representative, I want the university not to do what I think is right but what the students want and what the students think is right,” said Kartha.
• Platform: “Active transportation around campus,” said Kartha. “The transit around campus is not the best, and walking, biking or using any other modes on campus is kind of dangerous and not the safest. So, I want to change that. One of the main important issues that I want to fix is the library innovation project. Right now, the temporary relocation that has been allocated to the library is insufficient. I also wanna change how club funding works to enable clubs with more member participation to get more funding and also make funding more easily accessible.”

Sujanya Srinath (she/her)

• Major: Computer science
• Year: Junior
• College: CENG
• What she wants the students to know about her: She is currently a CENG representative on the Board of Directors and a part of the ASI DEI Committee, “and through that, I’ve helped advocate increasing social justice funding by $10,000 for club funding,” said Srinath.
• Platform: Alongside continuing to advocate for club funding and diversity on campus, Srinath would like to collaborate with the Student Learning Center.

Aaron Posternack (he/him)

• Major: City and regional planning
• College: College of Architecture and Environmental Design (CAED)
• Platform: “Transportation, safety and better food quality,” said Posternack.

Jett Palmer (he/him)

• Major: Statistics
• Year: Freshman
• College: College of Science and Mathematics (COSAM)
• What he wants the students to know about him: Palmer’s passions include mental health and accessibility.
• Platform: “My goals are to bring the underheard voice to the Cal Poly student government and make sure that everyone has equitable access to the resources we have here and to promote high-quality education,” said Palmer.

Ethan Robin (Any Pronouns)

• Major: Computer engineering
• College: CENG
• What they want the students to know about them: Robins is passionate about Cal Poly, loves talking to people and wants students to know that they are welcome to come up to them and ask any questions they may have.
• Platform: The theme of Robin’s platform is transparency. “I really want there to be easier to access platforms for people to understand how things work at Cal Poly, and so hopefully, they know who to go to when they’re bothered by something,” said Robin. “They know who’s in charge of that problem.”

Alexis Kong (she/her)

• Major: Business administration
• Year: Freshman
• College: Orfalea College of Business (OCOB)
• What she wants the students to know about her: “The board of directors is here to represent them and to keep their best interest in mind so that their college experience is memorable and a positive experience for everyone,” said Kong.
• Platform: “Diversity as well as focusing on issues that students face daily such as food insecurity,” said Kong

Varenya Gupta (he/him)

• Major: Industrial engineering
• Year: Junior
• College: CENG
• What he wants the students to know about him: “One thing I’m extremely passionate about is sustainability on campus, and I think I worked on the sustainability advising committee last year when I was in A-S-I student government on the executive cabinet,” said Gupta. “And I’m hoping to continue working on those relationships, expanding our solar farm. I know ASI itself is acting on and installing more solar panels and also working on housing on how we can create more sustainable practices for students without inconveniencing students.”
• Platform: “Helping clubs and orgs and just be a support voice for students,” said Gupta.

Elections are taking place from April 25 to April 27, and students can vote on the ASI website and in their Cal Poly portal.