David Campbell, a digital audio production and biology major and a self-proclaimed “underdog and independent student,” won the Associated Student Government presidential election, dominating the votes of the student body with 392 votes out of 705 participating voters.
Although the election results were temporarily suspended last week due to the controversy during the election, Denise Whisenhunt, Dean of Student Affairs, made his win official by commenting that “(Campbell) would be our next ASG president.”
Campbell was originally inspired to run for president when he was approached by a former president who couldn’t offer him an answer to what the ASG’s agenda exactly was. Campbell also noted during the presidential debate that he felt that school activities were “declining.”
Campbell said he felt “intimidated by all the Team Klue posters on campus” and the citycollegeaction.com Web site. He decided in order to win over City students, he had to use their voices and opinions directly and really find out what the students needed.
Campbell said he felt his campaign was “pretty damn strategic,” and walked around campus with his notebook talking to students. He asked every student he came in contact with what they personally wanted to see change on campus.
Campbell made it a point to push himself to students as the “underdog,” telling students that he was “the independent candidate,” and “a student just like you guys.”
Campbell also mentioned that he was excited to work with his vice-president elect, Christopher Conyers, a current ASG senator. Campbell said that Conyers had “more experience with ASG and really cares about changes that are to be made on campus.”
Conyers, who recently resigned as vice president, felt that Campbell ran a great campaign. “At first it was at the debates when we first heard ‘my name is Campbell, like the soup.’ It stuck” Conyers said. “Then the signs appeared. When I found out that he spent the entire campaign talking to people is when I believed in him.”
Campbell already has plans to kick off his presidency by tackling the first few issues on his agenda.
“My focus is to work on things that aren’t limited by budget,” Campbell said. He wanted to start uniting all City club presidents and arrange club fairs.
“If we meet altogether, we could all be on the same page,” Campbell noted. “Maybe we could set up an event calendar that had everyone events on it and post it on the (City College) Web site or post it in the (City Times) paper. Not everyone sees all the posters up on campus, so this could be another way to market it.”
Another major focus of Campbell’s is developing art shows and festivals to showcase student talent. “Students that are also musicians could play in the background” Campbell noted.
Campbell said he realizes that there are many important issues affecting students that will take more than just funding to fix.
“The cafeteria is too expensive for students,” Campbell claimed. “I know it’s a work in progress, but maybe we could work on a dollar menu with some snacks on it, like frozen burritos.”
Free Internet access on campus was on the majority of students’ minds when Campbell spoke to them, and although he’s not quite sure how to set that up, Campbell noted that he would follow up with campus official to get the ball rolling on that project.
Campbell also wanted to promote the upcoming City Knights school dance May 15 at 7 p.m. He said he feels that it will bring all different kinds of groups together and that it could be “a good start to start connecting our school.” The event will have a taco stand and sodas for the students and tickets are $5.
Campbell also wanted to let the students know that little experience in ASG didn’t necessarily mean he wouldn’t be able to do a good job. “If I bit off more than I can chew, then I just have to start chewing faster and harder!” Campbell exclaimed.
