When I met with ASI President Joshua Wood the first week of school, he filled me in about the board of director vacancies. The interview continued as follows:

Q. Last semester, how much did the special elections cost students?

A. $3,000 for the company and $1,000 for promotions.

Q. So $4,000 of ASI money?

A. Yes. Last year we spent $27,000 on the election. So if you compare $4,000-$4,500 to that, we save a lot of money by having the election online.

Q. Seeing as both measures failed, do you feel that you and your staff did an adequate job polling students before the election to see if Measure 1 and Measure 2 were something students wanted?

A. I wouldn&t say anything about it was a failure. They weren&t miserable fails. I wouldn&t say that they were a failure in any way.

Wood went on to say that he and his staff are re-evaluating the election to see if the idea needs to be adjusted and represented to the student body or if it should be scrapped. Wood explained that the idea behind the retention center (Measure 2) was to increase the percentage of students who graduate.

Q. I remember promises during your campaign for office last spring for a safer campus. How is Sac State safer today than it was a year ago?

A. Right now we are working on how campus safety in whole is dealt with. I commend President (Alexander) Gonzalez on making changes on who directly handles campus safety. Right now we are working on getting more community service officers; I mean, we can&t make any promises, though. We aren&t looking for police officers. We aren&t trying to get anyone arrested. We would like more community officers to the peace. Other schools have a higher student-to-officer ratio.

Q. Are you going to run for re-election?

A. (Laughing) No. I plan to be graduating and moving on.

Q. What, specifically, have you accomplished while in office that has benefited students?

A. A lot of things. The whole internal system was a mess when I came into office. We have updated operating rules. There were operating rules that conflicted with each other and included programs we didn&t have anymore. We have worked on a program that evaluates funding and sees if that money is spent where it&s supposed to go. So much internal stuff.

We have worked on reconnecting with students and on improving our public image. We are working with KDEE radio station on an internship program. A black chamber station.

Q. About how many internships?

A. Twenty to 30.

Q. Are you working on getting more watts for KSSU?

A. Yes, a committee is working on it.

As I left the room, Wood asked me if I have thought about running for office. I told him that I did a lot of that in high school and it&s too stressful because it seems like no one is ever happy, just like now in college. When I left Wood&s office, I wasn&t happy. It seemed that everything was being worked on and nothing was being done. Thus is politics.