Meet: Sean Williams, presidential candidate, and Aaron Abernathy, vice-presidential candidate.
Major and year:
Williams: Computer science junior.
Abernathy: Aerospace engineering sophomore.
Web site: www.seanandaaron.com
What makes you qualified to lead the USG?
Williams: The biggest thing is having spent the year as a [Residential Assistant]. Beyond that, an engineering education is an education in solving problems and, in my eyes, that is the sole goal of executives in the student government.
Abernathy: My political science minor really helps out in understanding how an ideal government ought to function.
What is your platform and why?
Williams: Our platform is mainly to deal with the issues of next year, and we don't know what those are yet. A lot of the issues that people talk about now either have already been solved and people don't know it yet, or are in the process of being solved.
How much of your platform can you realistically expect to accomplish?
Williams: Our platform, as stated, is completely realistic because it was formed with knowledge of the constraints of the job, or at least the student government set-up.
What would you do differently from the current USG administration?
Abernathy: I like what they've done, but I would expand their communication with the students to start including a lot more raw data.
With seven competing campaign tickets, how will you distinguish yourself from the pack?
Abernathy: To me, it's the diversity that Sean and I bring to the ticket. I don't think there's any other ticket where the two candidates disagree on so many issues but still understand and respect the other's viewpoint.
What are the weaknesses of your campaign?
Abernathy: I'd say it's initially a lack of knowledge of the inner workings of ASU and not having built up a contact base. But that can be overcome simply by a lot of effort very early in the year to get to know those procedures and develop a solid working relationship with those people.
Reach the reporter at elias.arnold@asu.edu.
ONLINE EDITOR'S NOTE: A formatting error in this story was corrected March 26.
