To encourage students to run for office and vote in the spring 2008 Associated Students Inc. election, three Sacramento State students put their creativity to work.

Karlos Santos-Coy, Tiffany Dreyer and Tom Carroll won the Election Campaign Contest held by ASI for their design aimed to get students involved in student government.

The team received $1,000 after students voted their slogan, “Make Your Mark,” into the winning position.

Five designs were voted on after a selection committee narrowed down the number from those originally submitted.

Santos-Coy and Carroll are graduate students at Sacramento State majoring in educational leadership and policy studies under the Student Affairs Cohort.

Santos-Coy said both helped supply ideas for the design, but Dreyer, a former student intern and commercial staff person for the University Union design team, was the design guru.

ASI funded the prize and the image of Santos-Coy’s arm that will be displayed all over campus during ASI’s election campaign.

The team’s initial design was the same arm, but pointing in a downward direction with the slogan “Make Your Mark” written on the arm in a tattoo or ink font. The group did not finalize the design, as it was unable to create the font it wanted.

“By turning the arm over, it created a much more powerful image, as well as an empowering image for students. The fist-up is a traditional image of empowerment,” Santos-Coy said.

“And that’s really what we wanted students to feel like when they went to vote. That they were empowered to make a change, to make a difference on our campus,” he said.

A field of graffiti or tagged words including “vote,” “inspire,” “lead” and “choose” are located behind the fist. The team brainstormed these words when discussing the election and student government.

Pat Worley, ASI executive director, came up with the contest idea. ASI liked the idea when it was brought before the committee, said Angela Hong, ASI marketing coordinator.

Christina Romero, ASI president, said the current logo used for elections has “worn out its welcome” after being used for many years.

Romero described the current logo as a trash can with the slogan “Vote Smart” written on it. She hoped a new logo would catch the eye of students and increase election participation.

“Our real hope would be that every student would come out to vote and care about who is representing them on campus,” Romero said.

The ASI 2007 election results showed about 1,700 students, out of about 28,000 enrolled, voted in the election. While 17 students ran for 12 open positions, no candidates ran for College of Education director and Undeclared director.

Hong said students have a lot going on with their studies and personal lives and careers, which sometimes pushes back campus events.

“We want to bring that forward and let them know that this is a great opportunity for them to pick their representatives and if they think they want to run, fill out their résumés and network, so they can get experience,” Hong said.

Hong said the filing period to run for the spring 2008 election is March 10 to 28, and voting will take place from April 29 to 30.

Romero said the most important thing to remember about running for office is the goal to serve students and advocate for students’ rights.

“So aside from any benefits, like the scholarships you get and being able to have access to ASI, the biggest benefit is being able to get that experience of serving other people, because that goes with you for a lifetime,” Romero said.Hong said ASI provides experiential education to students in an elected position, because they represent the college and student body.

“You hold very great responsibility like going to board meetings and passing legislation that can ultimately affect the campus,” Hong said.

Hong said debates and workshops will be held for students who want to run for a position, and ASI will work to get students to vote once candidates are in place.

Romero said the logo contest was open to all Sac State students with an interest in designing a logo either alone or with a collaboration of people. Students could submit one or multiple logos into the contest.

Santos-Coy’s team submitted six different formats of the design for buttons, pens, stickers, posters, T-shirts and door hangers to ASI by its Dec. 3 deadline.

Santos-Coy saw the contest ad on ASI’s website in November or December, and said it took hours filled with random thoughts and ideas to come up with a final logo.

ASI notified the team of the win in early February.

“We were very stoked. We all needed the money,” Santos-Coy said. “Anything that can get more students out to vote is a good thing.”

Romero said the design was nice and trendy, and that Carroll gave credit to a design team who created the logo together.

Carroll won the Sac State Herky the Hornet YouTube Video Contest with help from Santos-Coy in October.

“I think one of our goals, now that we know about these contests, is to encourage more students to get involved because these are great ways to contribute to the campus community,” Santos-Coy said.

For more information, visit ASI’s website at www.asi.csus.edu .

Ashley Downton can be reached at [email protected]