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Three candidates running for ASMSU presidency to speak

January 28, 2014

ASMSU, the university’s undergraduate student government, will host a town hall presidential debate at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night in 103 Berkey Hall for the three candidates in the running for student body president.

Christopher McClain, Kiran Samra and Jordan Zammit each have thrown their hats into the ring, all hoping to fill the position.

Wednesday’s event will give students an opportunity to ask the candidates questions, public policy junior and ASMSU representative Evan Schrage said.

Two of the candidates, political science-prelaw senior Christopher McClain and marketing senior Kiran Samra, both have had previous experience working with ASMSU and several other organizations, according to the question and answer portions of their applications.

Christopher McClain

Last spring, McClain served as a member on the Vice-Presidential Search Committee for Strategic Infrastructure Planning and Facilities. He also served as vice president for university programming, which helped him gain valuable experience with financial concepts, he said.

If elected, McClain said he would advocate for more community engagement from ASMSU. McClain also has served on several different committees and hearing boards at MSU.

“If we can get more things like (public forums), engage the MSU community as a whole, I think that’s fantastic,” he said.

Kiran Samra

Samra has worked her way up at ASMSU to chief of staff since her freshman year.

She currently assists with presidential tasks and duties at ASMSU, which makes her a good candidate, she said.

Her biggest goal, if elected, would be to bridge the gap between ASMSU and the student body.

“Sometimes students feel like we are not representing them to the best of our ability,” she said, adding that ASMSU’s mission is to help the students, including those involved in Greek Life.

Samra is a member of the newest sorority under the Panhellenic Council, Alpha Xi Delta.

She said she also wants to enact more communication between ASMSU, representatives and students.

Jordan Zammit

Although he is not a member of ASMSU, history senior Jordan Zammit said he has been around ASMSU enough to understand the process.

He also runs The MSU Review, what he refers to as a “pseudo news website.”

Zammit said “ASMSU’s brand is poison to the student body” because students don’t utilize ASMSU and it does a bad job representing them.

“They take a lot of the students’ money and waste it on special projects,” he said.

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If elected, Zammit said he would find better ways to serve the majority of the student body without overspending.

“I’m clearly not the most qualified person for this job, but of the three candidates running, I believe I’m the only candidate that can actually get anything done,” Zammit said. He said he hopes to restructure ASMSU, which he believes is outdated, to better serve students’ needs.

Each of the candidates expressed their desire to create change within ASMSU.

It is now up to the general assembly to cast their votes and elect a new leader on ?Feb. 6.

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