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Name: Mariana Garcia
Position: Diversity Outreach
What do you want to accomplish?
“If I’m elected, I would love to have more collaboration between the diverse groups on campus. I feel like, right now, we really overlook diversity when we should really be flaunting it because through diversity we can really create a sense of family and community that we can use to motivate the students to stay here at Eastern.”
Why did you decide to run?
“Coming from a diverse background myself, being a Chicana, Latina low socio-economic student here at Eastern, coming to Eastern was a very intimidating experience. I came from a community that was 45 percent Latino, so coming to Eastern I was shocked. Something that really helped my transition and what really motivated me to stay here was the diverse community here at Eastern, like the groups that promoted cultural awareness, cultural sensitivity, political activism. That really motivated me to keep on with my academics, and to join other organizations and really be actively engaged with the students.”
What do you want to change?
“Something I would change if elected into office would be I would be consistently, actively involved with the students and on a regular basis. I want them to know my name. I want them to know all the representatives name that are representing them at ASEWU.”
Name: Alex Warrick
Position: Diversity Outreach
What do you want to accomplish?
“Specifically what I’ve noticed is we have a very diverse campus in general. There are a lot of diverse groups, and I feel like they don’t have a lot of opportunity to converge and get the bigger whole. Let’s say there’s always diverse groups on campus. They don’t really intermingle. So what I really hope to do, in order to understand diversity, we really have to embrace it. So what I hope to do is have all the different groups and have all their clubs and stuff, but maybe just urge them to have socials and stuff. But what they really need to do is acknowledge and then just accept. I know diversity is a lot bigger than just race in general. There’s disabilities and sexual orientation. We just really need to understand where everyone is coming from because they all have a different story.”
Why did you decide to run?
“When I grew up, I didn’t know what race I was until I was 13. It was really hard for me, and I just tried to cling on to other cultures. When I found out who I was, I realized it’s not necessarily the word that defines you but who you see yourself as. It’s really embracing where everyone is coming from. I really want to make sure that, number one, I’m listening to what other people say as far as what we’re lacking as a school. In order to start something big, we really just have to accept everybody.”
What do you want to change?
“I feel like this is a new position from what I know. What I want to change is more of a straight agenda for this job specifically. I know right now it’s more about creating what this job can entail and who we can reach, but I feel like it needs to be a little more structured as far as who we can reach and how we go about that on a monthly basis.”
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Click here to go to ASEWU voting page
The Easterner does not endorse any specific candidate for any position in the ASEWU. Candidates are presented alphabetically by position. Candidate statements have been edited in accordance with the Associated Press Stylebook to reflect the requirements of content in The Easterner. Names and positions for diversity outreach candidates Shanakia K. Porter and Doran J.D. Williams and student health and safety services candidate Muzit Kiflai provided by ASEWU Public Relations Specialist Frank McNeilly.
