Haedon Brunelle; ASPLU President; brunelhc@plu.edu
Carson Bergstrom; ASPLU Vice President; bergstcj@plu.edu
Dear Lutes,
Three weeks into our roles as executives of Associated Students of Pacific Lutheran University we received our name tags naming our positions, and it still feels unreal. We feel privileged, blessed, lucky and honored to just name a few of our emotions. Upon receiving our name tags, we have been reminded of those four words and all of the hard work that we put into our campaign, which ultimately got us to where we are now.
We have kicked off our term with setting up the ASPLU Senate Elections and Director hiring for the 2018-2019 academic year. We have begun talks within ASPLU to receive community feedback on creating a Senate seat for Transfer Students, and talks with Outdoor Recreation to propose a rock wall to be built on campus.
It is a priority of ours to kick off the year with addressing what we campaigned about. We want to work with administration to conduct a plan to provide an accessible path from upper campus to lower campus. We also want to give students voting power on the Board of Regents, address carbon-neutrality through ASPLU’s Senate Resolution for the University to reconsider their planning for carbon-neutrality by 2020 for a 2030 campaign and much more.
While promoting our platform and seeing our projects carried out is a major priority of ours, another is to work with the Senate and Directors of ASPLU by supporting and promoting the ideas they bring to the table. Our administration values the opinions brought forth through ASPLU, but we also value feedback from outside of ASPLU and will take it just as seriously.
With that, we hope to have a productive, informative, thought-provoking year. We are so thankful for your support, and we are working hard to ensure that we deliver on our promises and continue our transparent and efficient spending of your tuition dollars in ASPLU. Here’s to a great, collaborative and productive year as your ASPLU President and Vice President.
Much Love Lutes,
President Brunelle & VP Bergstrom
Hilary Vo; Former ASPLU President; vohn@plu.edu
Oni Mayer; Former ASPLU Vice President; mayerol@plu.edu
Hilary: This was a difficult year full of transitions. I constantly had to ask myself the question, “How do you situate yourself in something that is constantly moving?” There was the transition from President Thomas Krise to President Allan Belton. I lost one of my biggest mentors, Dr. Rae Linda Brown. ASPLU and other student organizations lost our advisor, Ian Jamieson. And we as a university experienced the cuts happening during the Faculty Joint Committee process.
Throughout all of this, I experienced, as a woman of color, being tokenized by the university, dealing with microaggressions, being the only student of color in many spaces and having to continually carve a space for students of color in many white settings. I am proud of myself for making it this far, and proud of the things that I was able to do in this position.
What I am most proud of are the people who will follow in my footsteps, my Vice President Oni Mayer, who has continued to be curious, compassionate and willing to learn, and the first-year senators, Emery Kim, Gracie Anderson and Carlos Alvarez, who recognized their leadership ability and talent and ran with it.
There are countless other students of color who continue to step up, who demand to be heard and who refuse to stay silent. I could name so many names, but the students who will continue to do the work that needs to be done are the ones who make the sacrifices I made, the tears, sweat and long nights worth it.
Oni: A little over one year ago, President Hilary Vo and I transitioned into the executive positions where we would serve for one year to represent and advocate for the various needs of students on campus. I soon became aware that many of the problems this university has will take years to solve.
Throughout our term, it was evident that not only are there problems to solve, but also that we as students have to address them. The work Hilary and I have done this past year with the dedication, passion and grit of the ASPLU team has shined light on problems rooted in the PLU system.
However, we still have a long way to go. It has been a privilege and my deepest pleasure to serve as the student body Vice President this past year. I have learned many lessons and I want to emphasize several important messages.
As a white, cisgender male, I hold several privileges that I am aware of and have been learning how to navigate. If there is one lesson I take away from this experience, it is that students of color, and specifically women of color, are underrepresented and devote two to three times more energy, effort and time into the work at this school and deserve recognition.
Life means learning. Learning requires listening and an open mind. Please, take the time to listen, take the time to recognize the space you take up and constantly reflect on the impact you have on others.
This is a message to white students, faculty and administration, specifically white males. Listen, be compassionate, empathize, learn and reflect. Thank you.
Conclusion: We are thankful for the opportunity to lead the student body into a better place, a place where diversity, justice and sustainability are not just buzzwords, but steps toward greater action.
We couldn’t have done it without the support of the mentors, friends, students and teammates that we worked with this year. You know who you are, and we thank you.
