Note: All candidates were asked the same questions. Answers are placed in alphabetical order and have been transcribed from audio interviews. 

Candidates: Brandon Wear-Grimm, Yunus Timurtas

What makes you stand out as a leader?

Brandon: One thing I’d say for sure is my experience and my knowledge about this position and its responsibilities. Through my experience, I know very well about the financial and the money flows and that’s pretty much the major responsibility of the executive vice president. Just kind of like being aware of the budgets and knowing where the money is spent. Something that I don’t think has been done very well and something that I can do this year is really shine my and open up the accessibility for students to gain these millions of dollars of student funds–because how it is right now, it seems like there’s very little people who know about this money on campus and they’re taking full advantage of it, which is incredible– but if we open this up to more students and they’re more aware, that means we’re creating change that impacts not just a few people, but impacting the entire campus community. That’s something that I think I can bring to it. Then through my experience, working at student involvement, I’ve worked with all the clubs and orgs and just students face-to-face and I’ve heard their struggles and their problems, which is kind of like the budget issue and how it’s almost like a chokehold on the programs and the opportunities that they can bring to students. So I think for me with my expertise I can bring to the table the issues that I’ve heard and also be a champion for the student’s voice to hear other issues and concerns and then help open up this financial resources to them.

Yunus: I am the person who talks a lot. I like to reach out to students around CWU campuses and I like to be in-person. I like to listen person’s issues in the firsthand not from someone [else] and I am very easily approachable and everybody can easily access to me or find me anywhere in school or social media. They can find me easily and I don’t like to give up so I try my best to achieve my course or to find the solution for the issues.

What do you want to tackle first if elected?

Brandon: The issue that I want to tackle first is obviously the transparency with the budgets here on the administration side and the student board… there’s a huge knowledge barrier here on campus. So it’s almost a limitation to the opportunities that students have. How it is right now, it seems like everyone constraints this fee money or they’re not aware of the opportunity of all the student funds that are here on campus so I think for me to kind of shine like where’s this money going? And then actually creating a platform for students to share ‘these are our actual needs and concerns’ and ‘this is what we want to see, this is the change we want to see.’ For me, that’s my project or my major goal is to make sure that we actually hear these concerns and that we can identify where this money is going and then show ‘this is under utilized’ like these hundred thousand dollars have been under utilized, we can change that reality and put it where the students want. My major goal is creating this platform in this transparency for students so that we can create great change.

Yunus: I want a more focus to create the culture around CWU based on the student engagement without the interest because myself, I’m an international student and if I’m elected, I am going to be the first elected international students in [student government]. I want to… create a culture. So I’m gonna make sure that other CWU students and I’d be more able for the organizations, for the clubs and for the departments around the campuses. I want to be creating culture and bringing more diversity and more events for the students around the CWU campuses.

Which animal is best and why?

Brandon: For me, my favorite animal growing up as a kid was an elephant. I was obsessed with it. Being a little kid I had this toy elephant that I took everywhere. And for me, I think it’s pretty incredible. Just because family is super important to elephants, you know, the kids stay with their mother almost all the way through until they’re fully grown. And then their memory. I think that’s super key. They can walk back or back trace their steps hundreds of miles. That’s pretty cool. That’s a skill that I can hope I have and translate to this position now. I can keep track of all the money and make sure I know where all money’s going and where it can go. And so for me, I think that’s my favorite animal, and you know, they’re beautiful and they should be protected.

Yunus: I will probably say a dog because the dog is always likes to be with his owner and follow him in either way, wherever he goes and try to protect the owner. I like how dogs are, depending on the owner, showing their love to owners.

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Vote in the ASCWU primary May 9-12 at cwu.edu/ascwu.