The Associated Students Inc. 2007-08 campaign is over and the results for next year’s candidates are only moments away, as presidential candidates reflect on what they feel they did right, and what they could have done better.

One of the ways presidential candidate and junior business major Santo Mirza reached out to students was by conducting surveys in Sacramento State’s Library Quad almost every other day for about two hours or more shortly after campaigning started.

-“Surveying the students was a great experience for me, and provided great knowledge for the students,” Mirza said.-

Receiving student participation was difficult at first, but Mirza was determined to use the questions that were asked at the ASI debates to get opinions from both the voting and non-voting student body.

“I would say, in total, there was about 150 to 200 (students who filled out a survey),” Mirza said.

Aside from getting nearly 300 pictures of him printed, Mirza passed out the ASI Vote Smart pamphlets with ribbon that had his contact information on it.-

Mirza said he could have passed out surveys to students earlier than when he did, and set up a booth on the Library Quad like sororities and fraternities do to draw students’ attention. Though he said he could have done a couple of things differently during his campaign, he feels content with everything he did.

“I really feel good about the elections, because I was reaching out to a lot of students. They appreciate that I took the time to ask them those questions. I was really happy with how the elections turned out,” he said.-

If elected president, Mirza said he would like to set up a time every week to talk to students to get their voices heard, and so they can become more familiar with who all the ASI representatives are.

Though he did not do much campaigning, junior government international relations major Robert Linch Jr. said he is generally happy with everything he contributed to this year’s election.-

Linch said he made a couple of signs to post around Sac State’s campus, and he took the time to speak with students.-

He also said speaking to The State Hornet was a way he was able to get his ideas printed and distributed to students.-

“I’ve done really personal campaigning. I’ve campaigned in the dorms and talked about the ideas I have for the presidential position,” Linch said.-

He added he reached out to about a couple hundred students in this manner.-

“I really wish I could have gotten my message out in a more effective way. I wish I would have made more signs, and had a more effective way of distributing my message,” he said.-

During the presidential debate, Linch said he would focus on rallying against the 10 percent student fee increase.

“I’m happy with the message I’ve tried to convey to the students,” Linch said as he reflected on his entire campaign.-Junior English major Christina Romero said she and the other members on slate Vision have been in the Library Quad speaking with students, similar to the approach Mirza took.-Aside from going to her ASI debate, Romero said she has made classroom announcements and campaigned to fraternities and sororities on campus.-

“We’ve actually done a lot. We go in and let them know what our platform is, who we are, and we give them our contact information and ask them to sponsor us,” she said.- Along with other members of slate Team Access, Angel Barajas, former 2005-06 ASI president, accomplished his presidential title by the similar method.-

“We would get a lot of endorsements from clubs and organizations. We would speak at clubs and organizations’ meetings. We would also go into classrooms, speak to students about how to be involved in student elections and why they should be able to vote,” Barajas said.-

One of the things Romero did was set up a website for students to voice their opinions.-

“We’ve set up a website for students so that we can be transparent and they could contact us,” she said. –

Romero said she would have liked to have more volunteers to help her reach out to the whole campus community.-

She said although there is always room for improvement, she feels she put her whole heart into the campaign and did the best that she could.-

She said that this year’s election has been a clean campaign and that she respected the other candidates. –

“I want to thank the students who voted, being involved and caring for their campus community,” she said.-

If elected, Romero said she wants to make both ASI and the campus budget transparent for everyone to see, so everyone on campus will know how much money is going toward programs and in which departments.-

Barajas said his slate had a strong platform and strong message that students cared about.

Before elections, Barajas made it a priority to invest numerous hours to getting to know students.-

“I remember we worked plenty of hours. During those two days of elections, we passed out fliers on the quad and campaigned without stopping?sometimes without eating,” he said.-

Barajas said the candidate who knows the student issues and has a good platform will be ASI’s next president.-

“(He or she) has a vast and diverse support on campus, and pretty much would have worked to the very end of campaigning in order to receive votes. I think whoever has those qualities and criteria will become president,” he said.-

As the only presidential candidate unavailable for comment, O’Keeffe was present at the presidential debate where he said he will promote more student involvement on campus, and increase student pride of Sac State if elected.

,b>Jacqueline Tualla can be reached at [email protected]