Four candidates participated in the fourth Associated Students Inc. Candidate Forum held in the University Union Summit Room for the positions of vice president of Academic Affairs and vice president of University Affairs on Monday.

The vice president of Academic Affairs for ASI sits on the Faculty Senate Committee. The Faculty Senate is composed of Sacramento State faculty that help determine academic policy. The vice president of Academic Affairs is given a seat on the committee to give the students a direct voice.

Tucker Caruso, one of the candidates for the position of vice president of Academic Affairs would like to use the position to advocate for students in both the Faculty Senate and in the capitol.

“The Faculty Senate is a group of professors,” Caruso said. “They don’t control funds, they control academic policies, and they are fully aware how serious the impaction problem is, how serious and how hard it is. They watch students sitting at the front of their classrooms on the floor until the second week. There are ways to fix this problem, and these ways are very attainable for Sacramento State because we are right here in the state capital. Right now, we still do not have the funding we had before the recession, and we have more students.”

Caruso would also like to use the position to reach out to the whole student body and advocate for all students.

“In order to really reach the entire student body, the vice president of Academic Affairs has to be willing not just to go out to the college that he is from or she is from, but to every single ASI director of each college, meet with them and have them take you first hand to the students so that you can find out what issues the students are facing,” said Caruso.

Iris San, the other candidate for the position of vice president of Academic Affairs would like to prioritize impaction if she is elected.

“My biggest thing that I want to do is attack impaction; I will be the broken record if I have to,” San said. “I will bring up impaction as much as I can. It’s a problem; it’s gonna be a problem for long term, but it needs to start now. Whether it’s starting now and takes a couple years to get fixed, it needs to begin somewhere and I want to be that starting point for students. Impaction is one of the biggest problems and it is not being addressed enough”

The first candidate for the position of vice president of University Affairs, Mark Anthony Sohl, would like to use his experience as an resident assistant to serve the students.

“I think going into this whole college thing, I wasn’t really involved in anything and it was horrible — it really was. I felt like I didn’t belong in this community. Then I found this RA [resident assistant] job, then they picked me up and put me under their wing,” said Sohl. “I think being there for the students, that’s a special connection I have with them. And going into this position as your vice president of University Affairs, that’s why I want to run for this position. Because I believe that this is the one position that works directly with students to get them involved in university committees on this campus. And I would love to be that liaison.”

Zachary Corbo, the last candidate for the vice president of University Affairs, has been with ASI for three years and would like to use that experience to represent the students of Sac State.

“I have an institutional knowledge that I have gained through my committee experience that I have gained through my through my variety of club experiences on campus,” Corbo said. “That is very important for this position to have. I want to leave this university better than I found it.”

Zachary also noted his experience working with his peers and faculty as well as an emergency response team would be helpful knowledge if he were elected.

There will be two more candidate forums on Tuesday April 14 from 12-1 p.m. and on Thursday April 16 from 12-1 p.m.

ASI elections will be held April 21 and 22.