Candidates for Associate Students’ Government positions have been campaigning for student elections, which will be held April 6 and 7. One running party is Legendary, which consists of CSU-Pueblo presidential candidate Sarah Zarr and vice presidential candidate Gene Wilson, among various senator candidates.
Zarr, a mass communications major, is in the president’s leadership program, where she actively participates in volunteer work for both the college and community. She also serves as the president for CSU-Pueblo Students For Life and as a college of humanities and social sciences senator for ASG.
She has served as a representative on the PLP board of directors, a representative for the Colorado Leadership Alliance, co-captain for CSU-Pueblo’s Winter-Guard Team and as the co-captain for the marching band’s color guard.
Wilson is an associate chief justice for the ASG. In this position, his job is to make sure that students receive fair representation at appeals courts. He is also the vice president of the forensics team, which qualified for the national tournament this year.
Both Zarr and Wilson expressed their desire to create a legendary experience for both current and future CSU-Pueblo students by creating a college atmosphere where the student voice is heard.
Through a combination of an interview with Real Talk Today and email interviews, Zarr and Wilson shared the ideologies behind Legendary and the positive changes they plan to create for CSU-Pueblo.
CSU-Pueblo Today: What made you decide to get involved with ASG and what do you hope to accomplish if Legendary wins the election?
Sarah Zarr: I decided to get involved with ASG last year as a senator because I had a strong desire to help students. I also became a part of the governing body of CSU-Pueblo so that I could implement positive changes.
I decided to run for president this year because I want to become an advocate for CSU-Pueblo students. I want to show them that they can be legendary.
Legendary is made up of 11 different senators who want to take action in order to make positive changes at our university. We all have real-life leadership experience. As a group we represent different areas of our campus, be it culture, backgrounds, dreams, talents or ideas. We want to come together to make CSU-Pueblo a place that students are proud of.
As president, I will be an advocate for both our students and their dreams. I will seek to create a collegiate atmosphere that is a vibrant community of involved students. I want ASG to be the voice and servant of the students. I will give all students a space where they can be their unique self: a place where they can explore, develop and use their extraordinary talents.
My goal is to get more funding for higher education in Colorado as we are currently ranked 49th in the state. I plan to do this through working with the Colorado Student Government Coalition to make sure our student voice is heard in the capitol.
Access to higher education funding in Colorado will help to fix the areas that the students want changed such as the cafeteria food, Wi-Fi and technology.
I want to be able to support student organizations and get them the resources they need.
I want to make sure students are heard and informed about everything that happens on campus as well as the resources that are available to them. I want to bridge the gap between commuter and resident students.
I want to work on getting student who commute to CSU-Pueblo a place to bring their lunch, hang out, collaborate and encounter student organizations. I want to create spaces on campus where students can interact with each other and build lasting friendships.
I am striving to create a collegiate atmosphere that is a community filled with engaged and involved students: a community that is also caring, authentic, well informed, inspirational, and legendary.
Gene Wilson: I got involved with ASG because I thought it would a great opportunity to be involved with the judicial branch and represent our students with their appeals. I heard about the position through student emails and became involved. I wanted to be the voice of the students on these boards.
This experience got me more interested in everything that the student government does. I started to become more involved with projects, committees and I helped restructure many of the policies that were changed this year.
Legendary is about CSU-Pueblo students, not about ourselves. We want nothing more than for students to know how much we care and that Legendary is about making this campus their home away from home.
I hope to make sure that students are properly advocated for, and that they are able to have their own personal voices heard. I worked with Colorado Student Government Coalition so I know that all of the schools are willing to work towards the goal of getting more funding for our higher education.
This would help to create solutions for everything our students want. Cafeteria food, contracts, technology, and Wi-Fi would all be easily fixed with more funding. I also think that this would result in a chain reaction. Not only would more potential students be interested in CSU-Pueblo, but they would also enjoy their time here.
CSU-Pueblo Today: In 100 words or less, why should students vote for Legendary?
Zarr: Students should vote for Legendary so that they can have their voices heard, be led by servant leaders, be accurately represented, cared about and have the opportunity to receive a legendary college experience.
Wilson: Students should vote Legendary because we are able to be force that achieves the wants and needs of our students. Legendary is such a diverse group that it would represent numerous aspects of our campus and the ideas of our students. Plus, Legendary is looking to create a strong collegiate atmosphere in order to make this campus legendary for the students not us. As Sarah said at the debate, “it’s about the purpose not the position; it’s about the goal not the role.”
Voting, which is accessible through student PAWS accounts, begins April 6 and ends April 7 at 5 p.m.
