Candidates campaign for leadership roles

AMELIE LEE

Incoming USB Vice President junior Royce Park gave his election speech in the upper quad during lunch on Oct. 25 as part of his campaign.

Catherine Liu, Staff Writer

The 2017 Executive Board candidates, who were all juniors, had been given a week to make themselves known on campus, preparing their campaign with posters, flyers and gifts, then students were given three days to vote.

The new executive board, announced last week, that will enter office next semester, consists of Melody Lee as president, Royce Park as vice president, Annaya Shah as speaker of the House, Woojin Jeong as IOC Chairman, Abigail Nakaishi as secretary and Hersh Doshi as finance director.

“I ran for USB president because I love what USB does and what it stands for, it made me want to be the voice of the campus and lead USB to my best ability,” Lee said via Facebook.

Lee was on the e-board last year as the IOC chairperson and was the advertising commissioner her freshman year.

For her campaign, she handed out wristbands to students while her friends provided support in campaigning for her.

“As president, I want to continue to bring USB together and create events for the student body. I also want to make sure everyone student feels included when USB hosts events,” Lee said.

Meanwhile, Park who was the athletics commissioner for USB said that his previous experience in USB motivated him to run for VP.

“My friend, Christian Park, who is the current vice president, inspired me to run for VP because he made the position seem like a really fun one by the way he did his events and had fun at the same time,” Park said via Facebook.

During campaigning week, he handed out wristbands, pens and pencils but mainly focused on social media to advertise.

As VP, Park said he wants to make improvements to certain parts of the election process.

“Although the previous year’s elections were very smooth, there were still problems with how people elected and not everyone voted,” Park said.

Park states that he plans on trying to improve the technological problems that come with the election and encourage more people to vote and run.  

Meanwhile, Nakaishi, who was involved with USB as attorney general during her sophomore year,  gave out leis during election week to promote her Hawaiian-themed campaign.

She said she plans to guide new USB members so they are prepared for each event.

“I wanted to step up to a position where I could lead a group of people and help them, and I think with e-board, I could make a bigger difference than what I could make in USB,” Nakaishi said.