Allison Brown, ASUW Director of Governmental and Community Affairs, and Kathryne Carrier, ASUW Chief of Legislative Affairs, are running an executive campaign of cohesion, accessibility, and advocacy.
“We’re really passionate about student outreach and bolstering that in all ways to make sure that we can advocate on behalf of students properly and that we achieve these big changes at the university level that impact students in their everyday lives,” Brown said.
“I really want more events where the university administration can hear directly from students,” Carrier said. “Then using our own positions and our abilities to connect with university administration to hear what students are saying, like, Hey, I’ve heard this many times like it’s time we do something about it.”
Brown is currently running for President, while Carrier is running for Vice President.
“We love challenging each other, even throughout this campaign,” Brown said. “ASUW is really unique too because the Vice President chairs the Senate, so we work together but in almost entirely different worlds. I will always have my foot outside the office with university administration, President Seidel, Board of Trustees. Katheryne has that foot outside too, but is also running the Senate internally.”
“Allison and I have worked together very closely already in this past year,” Carrier said. “Constructive criticism is appreciated, and it’s something we’re very comfortable with giving each other.”
Some of the most critical issues on campus to Brown and Carrier are medical amnesty, student outreach, and an economic umbrella to maintain low tuition and fees for students.
“I might flip that question on you and say what are the most issues to UW because ASUW is representing UW,” Brown said. “We have our internal issues but Kathryne and I are really passionate about shifting away from ASUW internal workings, bylaws, issues, to shift toward what a student government should be, advocating for students.”
“ASUW has been working on, for years, a medical amnesty policy here on campus. We currently don’t have one unfortunately, which is obviously a huge problem, because that leads to many issues, potential deaths,” Carrier said.
One challenge Brown and Carrier expect to encounter, if elected, is fixing the relationship ASUW has with affiliated organizations.
“I think the benefit to restoring the student to university administration relationship is working with a platform and alongside our partners like InterFraternity Council, College, Panhellenic, Sustainability Coalition, student organizations, where we can all have a cohesive voice on campus and we will be much more effective when advocating to President Seidel, the Board of Trustees, and University administration,” Brown said.
“ASUW has had a lot of rocky relationships so far with some of our partners this year, unfortunately, primarily due to a lack of communication from both sides,” Carrier said. “Making sure that that is a lot clearer and a lot more transparent is a huge focus and goal for me.”
Work that Brown and Carrier associate themselves with from their previous experience with ASUW include the Rental Housing Ordinance, the Ad Hoc Restructuring Committee for ASUW, and the School of Computing.
“Initially, President Seidel brought that proposal to us, ASUW. Kathryne, along with other people, wrote a resolution against the School of Computing. President Seidel in the weeks that followed, sat down with Hunter [current ASUW President], myself, Kathryne and other senators four to five times and made actual changes to the proposal. And then the week after that, I wrote a resolution in support of the School of Computing,” Brown said.
