Public Profile: ASSOU Presidential Candidates

Daryl Maplethorpe & Leo McCaffrey

Daryl Maplethorpe is running for Student Body President has been serving ASSOU for two year now as Director of Public Relations and Media Outreach, having previously served as Arts and Performance Senator.

Leo McCaffrey is running as Vice President. In the past he has served as the ASSOU minute taker, Senator, Vice Speaker of the Senate, then director of governmental affairs.

The Siskiyou: Why are you running?

Darly: Going through the organization I noticed there were a lot of transparency issues, and there’s a lot of issues with processes that have happened. Student involvement was supposed to be happening but it really wasn’t. I didn’t have an actual voice on campus, which was part of where our platform of college affordability comes from, which is making sure that students are actually heard on these college campuses, that they’re given the strength and the tools that they need to deal with administrators, and talk to them and actually be a part of those conversations, rather than being told they’re a part of them then not actually being able to contribute.

Leo: I felt that I could give more to the organization, and I always have. I started off as minute taker, then Senator then Vice Speaker of the Senate, then Director of Governmental Affairs. I feel like I‘m not done.

The Siskiyou: How will you promote student involvement?

Daryl: I was the Director of Public Relations and Media Outreach this year and that was something I struggled with. We utilized social media to do outreach, posting and messaging people. But we have a very high turnover in office because we can’t keep officers because students just don’t care. I want to get people involved and make sure they’re not disenfranchised by this campus.

The Siskiyou: What are your immediate plans after taking office?

Daryl: Already I am pushing through several pages of cuts that would really cut back and simplify what the bylaws look like. The student fee process is extremely convoluted with five or six committees that allocate money to different organizations. It’s an entire mess. So right now I am looking at PSU’s model which is all shrunk down into one committee.

On top of that we need to get the bylaws committee seated first term because they didn’t meet until spring term this year. At the beginning of the year we will create a timeline of when all committees will start meeting and make sure to hit it. There’s no committee that should start meeting after winter term.

The Siskiyou: Last thoughts?

Leo: Whoever you vote for, thank you for voting. Taking the time to say this is who I want for the next president is huge. So thank you.

As of Thursday night candidates Darius Kila and Shanztyn Nihipali were taken off the ballot due to an academic standard that was not met by both of them in order to run for office.

Leave a Reply