Kristine YoungNews Editor

Christman and Skogland aim to expand the involvement of students across campus.

Shad Christman and Maria Skogland followed in the footsteps of the current Students’ Association president and vice president as state FFA officers and hope to do the same in SA.

Like Brett Monson and Erin Kennedy, Christman, a junior speech communication and political science major, and Skoglund, a junior agricultural economics major, served together as state officers for the Future Farmers of America.

In December, Christman started talking to Skoglund about running for SA.

“We worked together really well as state FFA officers, and we know each other’s strengths and personalities, so I was an obvious running mate for him,” Skoglund said.

Christman and Skoglund have three main platforms for their campaign.

The first is to create a congress of student organizations.

“Our vision is to see sort of another branch of student government that would act as a place where a representative or any number of people from all the groups across campus could come together and talk about issues on campus,” Christman said.

Skoglund said the congress would make it easier for students to get involved.

“Since one of our long-term and general hopes for campus is for every student to get plugged into their area of interest, it would make it more accessible and easier for student organizations to reach out to students,” she said.

Their second platform is to look into establishing reciprocity with more states. Skoglund said they will do this by looking at available studies, as well as taking into account the various impacts of expanding reciprocity.

“We know we can’t walk in and fix it right away, but we could like to ask the questions and look at … what it would mean for our university and for our state,” she said.

Finally, Christman and Skoglund want to create an SDSU-wide day of service.

“The connections between campus and the Brookings community are great, but we want to make it greater and make a big statement that says students want to help out the community,” Christman said. “Our vision is to work with all of the non-profit groups within Brookings.”

Christman said he and Skoglund also hope to address issues like parking, sidewalk maintenance and the Wellness Center and Performing Arts Center expansions.

“Our goal is to make sure these issues are addressed and in a timely manner,” Christman said. “However, those are platforms we share with Mark and Anthony, so to put our first three platforms out there boldly is a way to set us apart.”

Christman said that if elected, he and Skoglund will work to create more unity within SA.

“We need the strong leaders in the senate to come together in a more unified sense,” he said. “We want to start early with some training and get-togethers to get everyone acquainted and vamped up for the year.”

Skoglund said that if elected, she and Christman will work to represent the students.

“[We] understand our position is to represent over 12 thousand students,” Skoglund said. “… As we continue our growth and development, we need to maintain the student voice in the decisions that affect current students and all of our future Jackrabbits.”

Christman said students should care about what SA does and pay attention this election season.

“This is our place, we’re paying to go here, and we have the ability to change and to do great things,” he said. “We want to encourage everyone to be active, find their passions and to vote.