The Associated Students Inc. (ASI) presidential debate will be held virtually on Monday, March 22 at noon after facing a series of delays to the election petition deadline.
Since ASI was concerned students were unaware of petition deadlines to run for office, the 2021-2022 ASI elections were delayed to April 6 to April 8.
The four candidates running for ASI president are D’Aungillique Jackson, Steven Hensley, Isabella O’Keeffe and Nicholas Moore. The Collegian will be hosting the debate.
Jackson currently serves as the president of the Fresno State NAACP chapter. Last summer, Jackson, along with other Fresno State NAACP members, led a Black Lives Matter protest in Fresno, gathering thousands of people at Fresno City Hall.
Jackson was also helping the city paint Black Lives Matter on P Street. As part of nationwide calls for police reform, she served as the chair of the community input committee for the Fresno Commission for Police Reform, helping to create recommendations to reform Fresno police.
With her campaign, Jackson said she hopes to provide for the needs of the student body and seeks to “create an environment that emphasizes mental health, inclusion and support.”
“Right now, it’s important for us to invest in our community,” Jackson said. “I think we can accomplish this by supporting our university’s effort to combat COVID-19 … Finally, pushing for the mental health of students, faculty and staff by creating new opportunities for our community members to recharge.”
Hensley is a student coordinator for Bulldogs for Recovery, which hosts virtual meetings to provide a safe space to students recovering from addiction. He is also a member of Project Rebound, a Fresno State organization that helps formerly incarcerated students reintegrate through higher education.
Hensley was recently selected as a California Justice Leader with the AmeriCorps to assist youth overcome boundaries when reentering society after incarceration, which Hensley said is an opportunity to help others who share his experiences.
Hensley said his campaign for presidency is driven by his previous life experience struggling to find food to eat and living in unsafe conditions. At many points in Hesnley’s life, he said all he wanted was someone who understood his struggles.
“If elected as ASI President, I will persist tirelessly in the effort to shape an environment on campus where students feel comfortable in being transparent about their hardships, experiences and needs,” Hensley said
O’Keeffe serves on the diversity, equity and inclusion committee at Fresno State, a campus-wide committee under ASI. She has previously served as student body president, vice president and student trustee at her former community college.
She said a primary aspect of her campaign is to provide students an environment where they feel safe, heard and represented.
“The pandemic changed our lives and our education, and I believe it is important to acknowledge this and help create and reestablish programs and events to give you a positive college experience. If elected I promise I will lead with resilience and compassion, with students at the forefront of my decisions,” O’Keeffe said.
Moore is the lone candidate who has held previous positions in ASI. He is currently the ASI vice president of finance and previously served as the ASI senator of student affairs.
He said he has had much experience within ASI and understands the tools necessary to assist and serve students, noting his creation of the Club Booster Grant to support clubs during the pandemic while serving as ASI vice president of finance.
A major goal of his presidency is to provide support for clubs at Fresno State.
“One of my major goals, if elected, is to provide as much support as possible to clubs on campus. Clubs provide the foundation for student success and I want to make sure they have the funding they deserve,” Moore said.
The debate will be livestreamed on the Fresno State ASI Facebook page.
