One month after the original surprise surrounding the split-ticket results of elections for ASUPS President and Vice President, Eric Hopfenbeck and Santiago Rodriguez were sworn into their positions on Tuesday, April 16. Originally campaigning with separate running mates, (Krista Haapanen and Scott Miller, respectively), Hopfenbeck and Rodriguez will serve as ASUPS President and Vice President for the 2013-2014 academic year.
In the past month, Hopfenbeck and Rodriguez have been working together to plan for the year ahead. An immediate hurdle in their duties was merging the ideas of both campaign platforms in order to form a cohesive plan for next year.
“Santi and I have some big ideas from our respective platforms as well as some we’ve come up with together … we are hoping to use as much of each of our campaigns as possible for our year together because we feel like we almost have an advantage with having two campaign’s worth of ideas to work on to benefit the student body,” said Hopfenbeck.
One such idea is the master calendar, which will compile all campus events into a simple interface for students. While the results of the election were certainly unexpected, both Hopfenbeck and Rodriguez look forward to working together. Hopfenbeck recognizes a major strength of the UPS student body as “bringing students together in many different realms, whether it be in class, on the athletic fields, in a club meeting, at a school event, in the concert hall, or wherever it may be is a wonderful strength that this campus has.”
Hopfenbeck’s passion for the mission of ASUPS is apparent. “I hope that students with a wide variety of personalities and interests also see the value of ASUPS and want to get involved … another challenge is to continue to inform students about what ASUPS is and how ASUPS can help students with their endeavors.”
The new ASUPS executives, replacing Brian Ernst and Rachel Borsini, are currently in the process of hiring the rest of their team for next year. The pair’s enthusiasm for working together drives many of their objectives. Says Hopfenbeck, “[Santi] is a fantastic person, as well as a great student, and he is going to do a phenomenal job as Vice President next year. Our personalities and work personalities work very well together.”
One of the biggest challenges that Hopfenbeck foresees for the 2013-2014 year is the relatively short amount of time: “There is only so much time to work with to do what Santi and I want to do to better the student experience.” Hopfenbeck is, however, optimistic. “I am most excited about being able to make significant improvements to student life to ensure the best possible year for all students. I am also looking forward to welcoming a new class of students to campus and the residence hall. Finally, but certainly not lastly, I am really excited to get know more students, faculty and staff and hopefully help students in whatever way I can.”
Hopfenbeck and Rodriguez hope to boost involvement in both ASUPS and the general community. Hopfenbeck stated, “I also see passion as a huge strength of this campus. So many students on campus have a passion for something and it is really amazing to see those students doing what they’re passionate about and how they share that with other students.”