Three students on the Associated Student Government’s Academic Committee are hoping to rise to the body’s top post of Academic Vice President. The position involves lobbying for items such as financial aid and curriculum changes.

Jodi Anderson

Born in South Korea, Jodi Anderson was adopted by an American family when she was six months old. At the age of four, she led fellow immigrants in the Pledge of Allegiance at a naturalization ceremony.

“Growing up, I was always very aware of issues like identity, race and opening dialogue along different lines,” said Anderson, a Weinberg junior and first-generation college student.

One of Anderson’s major plans — making ethnic and gender studies classes available as distribution requirements for more Weinberg majors — reflects her history growing up a minority in White Bear Lake, Minn., a suburb of St. Paul.

Anderson, who transferred from St. Olaf College in Minnesota her freshman year, said professors should post class syllabi and ISBN numbers for class textbooks in course descriptions before students register. She also wants to improve Undergraduate Career Services by creating a second advising center on South Campus and informing students about more nonprofit and public sector jobs.

“Currently, I feel that there’s a very narrow trajectory that Career Services lets students take,” Anderson said.

She also said it is “vital” to make ASG more transparent by creating a committee Web site and posting ASG financial information online.

Andrew Xia

Andrew Xia, a Weinberg sophomore, said the AVP election is about being the best leader.

Since the candidates’ platforms are very similar, the best candidate is the one who can maintain the Academic Committee’s enthusiasm and keep it on task, Xia said.

As for ideas, they’ll come from the students.

“A lot of candidates come up with their own ideas,” Xia said. “But I think students come up with the ideas and I listen.”

Born near Toronto, Xia spent two years in a public high school before being recruited to Upper Canada College, a boarding school.

His interest in politics grew after he became an ASG fraternity senator for Beta Theta Pi.

Besides finishing long-term Academic Committee projects such as getting more financial aid for summer session students and expanding the Asian-American and Latino studies programs, Xia has more basic goals. He wants to make a “sent” mail folder for WebMail, create waiting lists for every class and make teaching assistants’ attendance mandatory at all lectures.

The most important job for the AVP is controlling the committee effectively, Xia said.

“If you ever demonstrate that you’re not confident, don’t like speaking in public or you’re shy, then the committee won’t respect you,” he said.

Jason Downs

Weinberg junior Jason Downs packs a lot in before midnight.

Up by 6 a.m. most days to work out, his hours are split between music ensembles, working at a double economics and political science major, the ASG’s Academic Committee and volunteering at an inner-city music program.

Downs’ agenda is just as ambitious, with nine different specific proposals. Despite the breadth of his platform, Downs said he expects the best ideas will be found in the student body.

“I want to emphasize (that) I think the best ideas, the best things we’re gonna work on in this coming term, aren’t going to be in the platform,” Downs said. “They’re gonna be coming from students talking to us about what they need. And if we fail to do that, we’ve really failed as a government.”

Downs plans to create a Web site that would post the Academic Committee’s activities and give the student body the opportunity to offer its own ideas.

Beyond general communication, Downs has several other proposals, including some to improve class sizes and academic advising.

One of the more unusual planks in his platform is the creation of “sophomore seminars,” intimate classes for Weinberg sophomores often marooned in large lecture courses.

Reach Evan Hill at [email protected] and Jordan Weissmann at [email protected].