Passionate Candidates Elected Unopposed: ASPLU Looks to the Future

 Associated Students of PLU (ASPLU) has recently undergone some changes which have been reflected in this year’s elections and the overall functioning of ASPLU. On March 20, the student body at PLU received an email encouraging students to participate in the 2024-2025 ASPLU elections. 

Lutes learned about their future President, Paradise Gladstone, and Vice President, Corbin Avichouser on Thursday, March 21, 2024. Being the only candidates running for these positions, the only way they would not get elected would be if, “50% or more of those who vote… vote no confidence or put in a write-in,” commented current ASPLU President Ash Bechtel. 

Avichouser shared that he was disappointed to not have anyone else run for the VP position, “I feel like I know other people who could do this job and do it well. I wish there was somebody else so I could at least prove that I was the one that people actually wanted.” 

With his previous experience as a Finance Director at ASPLU, Avichouser hopes, “to take more action on a lot of things… [and] get more done than we have this year…because a lot of what has been started is more on a ground level.”

Lack of student interest in the election has been at the forefront of the candidates’ minds. Gladstone spoke to this, stating that it, “speaks to where we are as an organization – we are still rebuilding.” 

Gladstone ran for President to, “make sure that this next generation of students have the support network and have built the skills to take initiative on themselves.” 

Bechtel believes that Gladstone and Avichouser are “well-prepared for the positions” and hopes “that the university and the advisors support them in ways that allow them to enact that vision.”

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