The Triton’s Editorial Board endorses Fresh Start candidate Melina Reynoso for Associated Students of UC San Diego’s (ASUCSD) Vice President of Campus Affairs.
Reynoso has served on Thurgood Marshall College Student Council as First Year Representative and currently serves as a Marshall College Senator for ASUCSD. The Triton believes she has proven herself to be a capable leader at both the college and campus level.
A major focus of Reynoso’s platform is connecting students with campus resources. Like her running mate, presidential candidate Eleanor Grudin, Reynoso recognizes that the disconnect between ASUCSD and the student body can obstruct access to AS programs and resources. While AS meetings are currently open to the public, Reynoso wants to further improve visibility by live streaming and archiving ASUCSD meetings. She also hopes to empower students from marginalized communities to play a more active role in AS processes.
Additionally, Reynoso’s platform prioritizes addressing retention issues within ASUCSD, which she attributes to AS representatives taking on their roles without being fully informed about duties and procedures. Based on her campaign, we expect to see transparent, documented changes to the AS constitution and standing rules in order to codify AS roles and responsibilities. Reynoso is hopeful that this will not only clarify AS positions, improving efficiency, but also facilitate students reaching out to representatives regarding specific policies.
In order to bring ASUCSD and students closer together, Reynoso proposes holding regular open office hours so that students can interact with their representatives more often. To that end, she also wants ASUCSD to help promote existing events by campus organizations and college councils.
Reynoso is experienced and passionate about giving students a voice in their student government. For the reasons above, we fully endorse her for the role of Vice President of Campus Affairs.
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