The race for executive vice president pits two students fromdiverse leadership backgrounds against each other. Buffett iscurrently an Executive Committee member, while Diaz, a studentgroup leader, has an outsider’s perspective on theorganization.
Buffett: ‘About People’
For the past year, Buffett served as an 1835 Hinman senator andon the ASG executive committee, but his experience in politicsdates back further — all the way to elementary school.
Buffett ran for president of his second-grade class and wonthanks to a secret campaign strategy — handing out thecrayons.
Buffett, a Communication sophomore said he has always beeninterested in politics and enjoys campaigning.
As executive vice president, Buffett said he would lobby theuniversity to increase the $7,000 pool of money available next yearfor the first time to new B- and T-status groups.
In addition to increasing funds, Buffett said he wants tofacilitate and promote co-programming between student groups withthe hopes of bringing higher-quality events to campus andincreasing student attendance and group revenue from theseevents.
Buffett plans on creating an online calendar for student groupsto map out tentative scheduling plans so they can avoid schedulingconflicts with other groups. He also said he wants to set up aseparate online calendar for student groups to post events for thepublic.
“Plan-it-Purple has so much information — down to an alumnidinner for the veteran’s associations,” he said. “A lot of it, tobe frank, is worthless to students. This will create a calendarwhere students can view student-group specific programming.”
Buffett said he also wants to work with theater and music groupsto hold a multi-group event to raise money for a new light boardfor the arts community.
Megan Morse, Buffett’s half sister and a graduate student atBall State University in Indianapolis, said her brother would beperfect for the position not only because of his experience on thecommittee, but because of his compassion for others.
“(Howie) keeps in mind that this is about people and not justissues,” Morse said.
Diaz: ‘Helping Groups’
Diaz first considered running for executive vice presidentduring Reading Week last quarter, she said, when a friend suggestedshe should. But it wasn’t until last Wednesday, when she begangathering signatures for her candidacy petition, that she knew forcertain she wanted to enter the race.
“The more I talked to people and the more they asked about myideas, the more excited I got,” said Diaz, a Weinberg junior. “Iknew it was something I had to do.”
Diaz, outgoing president of the Latino cultural group Alianza,said her unique experience outside ASG makes her a good candidatefor executive vice president, a position that deals with T- andB-status groups.
“I started out thinking, as a student group leader, (of) all thethings I didn’t like about ASG,” Diaz said. “That’s where I’vegotten most of my ideas.”
She said her first priority would be to improve the relationshipbetween T- and B-status groups and ASG. As president of an A-statusgroup, Diaz said her group’s relationship with ASG is strongerbecause it receives funds through the organization. But with T- andB-status groups, Diaz said, group leaders have fewer incentives torely on ASG and use it to help them.
“I want to be able to bring back the need for ASG and make T-and B-status groups feel like ASG is really helping them,” Diazsaid.
She wants to implement an executive committee structure thatholds committee members accountable for being in constantcommunication with student groups. Each committee memberindividually assists about four or five student groups. Diaz saidshe would require committee members to go through formal training,report back to her on weekly basis and attend at least half of theevents held by the student groups they represent.
Diaz said she wants to see an increase in the funds allotted tonew T-and B- status groups by the university and publicize otherexisting sources of funding.
Lupita Temiquel, coordinator for Hispanic/Latino studentservices and advisor to Alianza, said Diaz has proven herself to bea strong leader.
“(Diaz) came in (to Alianza) during a transition period andreally tried listening to members, finding out what they wanted andtaking Alianza in that direction,” Temiquel said.
