Cal State LA’s Associated Students Inc. election has been postponed by one month to encourage more students to get involved and apply for a leadership position.
The election was originally going to take place in late March, however, due to the virtual status of campus they are having difficulties getting students involved, said Arie Lea Kuo, Associated Students Inc (ASI) Elections and Outreach Commissioner.
“Since we’re all online, and everything looks a little different… we decided to give more time for students because we weren’t getting as many applications as we wanted to,” said Kuo.
According to Kuo, ASI has been strategizing how to engage more with students and make them excited to participate in election events.
“We are doing our best….we’re using social media to inform our students,” said Ma Ledi Ham Loot, Vice President for Administration at ASI.
Loot said she pushed to improve communications and social media engagement between ASI and the students through multiple initiatives. She created a subscriber-based newsletter to give students updates on the work ASI is doing and reminders for upcoming events and election information.
However, the newsletter had issues when it came to getting subscribers, said Loot.
“I created a newsletter wherein the students can subscribe to so that they can receive information,” said Loot, “But, we don’t have access to student emails.” Students would need to individually sign up on the ASI website.
Since ASI leaders rely heavily on its social media and website promotions, their audience is limited to students who are following them and other Cal State LA related accounts on social media.
For some students who are not engaged with Cal State LA or ASI on social media, getting information may be limited to your campus email.
“I only received one email directly from the university about the election… I think the university can do more about informing students,” said Cal State LA student Anna Sanchez who attributed most of her knowledge about the election to student-led social media accounts.
Another Cal State LA student, Jonathan Davila said “I believe the school has done a good job with email updates and keeping us informed.”
Along with moves to improve communication with students, ASI has also implemented incentives to get students to attend election events and to encourage students to vote.
Students who attend any of the election events will be entered into a gift card raffle and those who vote in the election will be automatically entered to win prizes.
If you are interested in running as a candidate, the application deadline is on March 5, and voting will take place from April 26-29. The election results will be announced on April 29.
