Johnathan Li – Executive Vice President

Hey Highlanders! My name is Johnathan Li, and I am a third-year in business administration with a concentration in finance. I am excited and proud to announce that I will be running as your executive vice president. Currently, I serve as your vice president of external affairs. In the past, I have served you in different capacities such as president pro tempore and senate secretary. Since my time in ASUCR, I created the Clicker Checkout Program that has served over 300 students each quarter. Besides the Clicker Checkout Program, I expanded the Motorist Assistance Program, improved ASUCR transparency and accountability and much more. With my UC and ASUCR experience, I can ensure you that I can continue to hold administrators and student leaders accountable for their actions until the issues that are affecting students are relieved or resolved. Vote for me as your executive vice president!

Andrea Cuevas – Executive Vice President

I am running for the position of executive vice president. My diverse experience in ASUCR as a senate intern, vice chair of the Personnel Committee and extracurricular activities make me the ideal candidate. Having worked with the Executive Cabinet in my lower-level positions, I have seen how things are run and can attest that I will bring a new perspective to this position. I would like to improve and increase involvement opportunities within ASUCR by expanding the senate intern and fellowship programs. This means adding more structure, more opportunities and holding the senators accountable to their duties. Lastly I hope to be key in creating a more transparent student body government by sending out the agendas for senate meeting to the entire student body two days before the senate meeting so that all students will be informed and not have to rely on social media to receive this information.

Johnston Pau – VP of Finance

Hello everyone! My name is Johnston Pau, I am a third year business-finance major and I will be running for the vice president of finance. I have spent the last three years in the finance department of ASUCR, and I have learned the applicable skills necessary for the job and have the absolute confidence that I will do my best if elected. Throughout the last three years, I have built good relationships with the 400+ clubs on this campus as they sought us out for club funding and I hope I can continue that next year. As a student leader, I will be as transparent as I can be and hear out all of the issues that our student body has and do my best to resolve them as efficiently as possible. My goal is to eliminate wasteful spending and reallocate our funds into more prioritized programs.

Jose Cortez-Hernandez – VP of Internal Affairs

This year I will be running for the vice president of campus internal affairs. Previously, I had the opportunity to serve ASUCR as a CHASS senator, and presently as the vice president of finance. If elected, I would work to renegotiate our contracts with Zagster to lower the costs of our bike share program, continue the annual Beyond R’ Margins conference, establish a subsidized rental service for senior gowns and lastly work toward securing the necessary funding for professional staff that the R’Pantry is in dire need of. As the vice president of campus internal affairs, I will ensure that your student government is bringing you amenities and programs that students are in need of and can easily use. I will serve and represent all students if elected and revitalize the association to make it more beneficial for all students.

Martin Cuenca – VP of External Affairs

My name is Martin Cuenca and I will be running in this year’s ASUCR elections as a candidate for the vice president of external affairs (VPEA) position. Currently, I serve the student body as a student senator of my college, CHASS. In the past I served in the capacity of legislative affairs director under the office of the VPEA, and I always wanted to pursue VPEA, but I felt as though I wasn’t ready to fully serve the position. Having taken a year for personal growth and development, I am now happy to announce my candidacy for the role. As vice president of external affairs I want to promote diversity, mental health campaigns and issues and boost our community’s civic engagement. I want to see our underrepresented communities thrive in this tense political atmosphere and I will make sure our community’s participation in local, state and federal elections rises!

Austin Mok – GCAP Director

Hello Highlanders! My name is Austin Mok and I am your current undergraduate sustainability director for ASUCR. With the help of my committee, the Green Campus Action Plan, or GCAP for short, I’ve given back to the students of UCR by providing grants to student organizations, creating internship opportunities within my office and other campus departments and even spearheading environmental projects on campus like the Zagster bikeshare program. In this past year, I’ve learned a lot about sustainability and the needs of the student body. If voted into the director position again next year, I will make UCR a leader in environmental stewardship by continuing to push for programs that provide increased food security to students, expanded options for recycling and composting and higher use of renewable energy on campus.

Carolyn Chang – Outreach Director

Hey Highlanders! I’m Carolyn Chang and I’m a second-year business administration major. I currently serve as one of your CHASS senators and last year, I served as a freshman finance fellow. As a committee member on the Outreach Committee, I am running to be your next outreach director! This past year I have attended high school visits, outreach grant hearings, and weekly committee meetings. If elected, some of my goals are to focus on are visiting two high schools each quarter, educating high schoolers and middle schoolers more about college and what to expect and working more alongside with finance for outreach hearings and attending general meetings.

 

Isaiah Kim – Outreach Director

Candidate did not submit a photo.

In the Spring of 2018, Highlanders will head to the polls to decide the future of our university. Every year, students running for ASUCR will say the same thing, but this year the Highlander Empowerment Referendum will decide if the invaluable programs in Costo Hall will be able to operate as usual. UC Riverside will need creative solutions to the issues we will face in 2018, 2019, and beyond. I am running for Outreach Director because I am a leader with a background of working with committees within ASUCR to find creative solutions to the problems you face every day. Under the Office of the Vice President of External Affairs, I lobbied Governor Jerry Brown to force corporations to pick up the tab for funding the UC system, so students like you do not have to. As Outreach Director, I will use outreach funds to foster a vibrant campus community.

Jordan Steinhauser – Personnel Director

My name is Jordan Steinhauser and I’m running for the position of personnel director. I’m a second-year neuroscience major in CNAS and currently hold the position of executive assistant for the executive vice president of ASUCR. My job entails screening, interviewing and hiring first-year fellows and interns. It is through my involvement in ASUCR that I feel I am qualified to hold the position. As a member of the student government I enjoy listening to the student body to determine the needs of our students and implementing effective, meaningful change. I am constantly thinking of ways to increase campus involvement, thus helping students realize that they have a voice and this is their campus. As personnel director I would like to recruit more members for a continued strong student government. I am a strong advocate of student government and every student should have an opportunity to be involved.

Nataly Morales Sandoval – Personnel Director

I am a first-generation student who plans to become involved in California politics in the future. My plan is to run for local politics because one can make a big change in a small location. For that reason, I am running for personnel director. This position is in charge of committees that make a big difference, but have not been as effective. I plan to make these committees well-known and prosper. ASUCR is a big platform for the UCR student body. ASUCR has a voice that can be louder in order to make great changes. ASUCR has been a part of my life for the last two years. In those two years, ASUCR committees have been an extreme part of my political and personal growth and that is what I hope to achieve in the mind of many others through greater publicity, diversity and effectiveness.

Connie Wi – Director of Marketing and Promotions

Hello Highlanders! My name is Connie Wi and I’m thrilled to be running for your director of marketing and promotions again. ASUCR is essentially the voice of this campus with the duty to promote the overall well-being of the students of UCR. I strive to continue to be that voice for you. My goal this term was to not only efficiently market and promote opportunities for the students here at UCR, but also to strengthen the relationship between the student government and the student body. I would love to continue to strengthen this relationship, be present, get feedback and finish the projects that I’ve started this term. I was able to learn so much about the university, the administrators and the students during this term and I invite you all to join me on my continuing journey to improve our university.

Vanessa Salinas – Transfer/Non-Traditional Director

Hello fellow Highlanders! My name is Vanessa Salinas and I am a 22-year-old Latina transfer student from Citrus College majoring in sociology with dreams of becoming a social worker to help communities and children in foster care. I would love to have the opportunity to represent and be the voice of transfer students. Joining ASUCR was my goal once I transferred here because I wanted to ensure the needs of transfer students were being met. I propose to table every other week to make myself visible and available to address any concerns or questions as well as set up workshops and open forums to address needs. I understand the struggles transfer students face on campus such as making friends and navigating campus but I promise to hold social events for transfer students to build a stronger sense of community so that we can succeed in our education.

All candidate photos courtesy of ASUCR.