Q&A
News •
2014 Wildcat Orientation Guide • 9
Ortega, new ASUA president, talks about his future in office
in here, I’m honestly excited to see what comes up. I think a lot of times the most special things that happen to the students in an academic year come up as a surprise. That’s kind of what happened with Morgan [Abraham] — guaranteed tuition was awesome. I’m just excited to see what that next big thing is, and working with ASUA and working with the Daily Wildcat and everybody on campus together — like a whole effort to make it happen, so it works out for everybody.
The Daily Wildcat
Issac Ortega has a big job to do as the newly inaugurated president of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona. He met with the Daily Wildcat to talk about his biggest fears and goals for the upcoming year. DW: What is the biggest problem that students face on campus today, and what is your plan to fix it? Ortega: I think the biggest problem that students face today, probably, is this reoccurring problem that we always have in Arizona, and that’s access to affordable education. It always is and always will be the biggest issue that students face on a day-to-day basis. I want to start on campus, making things more visible and transparent, working with administration and the Arizona Board of Regents, because that’s something that ABOR has called into action — to make fees more transparent, letting people know where they go, how they’re collected. I want to be able to work alongside everyone and go along that path, and then as soon as the next session for tuition starts to come up, I’ll really work with partners across the state, and with [UA President Ann Weaver Hart], who’s done an amazing job with listening to students and working with us with guaranteed tuition. So, hopefully we’ll all be able to work together like we did this past year. What do you think is the most important job of the ASUA president, and how do you plan to accomplish that? My job is to listen and react to what students want. I want to make one promise: to make sure that before I go to sleep every night, I’ll know that I did everything I could that day to do that. We’re taking a new approach to listening to
savannah douglas/The Daily Wildcat
Issac Ortega is inaugurated as President of the Associated Students of the University of Arizona on May 1 in the Student Union Memorial Center Kiva Room. Ortega will be responsible for representing the UA’s student body in the upcoming school year.
ways students think about issues, that’s why we created the University Affairs Department, and they’re going to be in charge of getting that opinion and really putting it into action. We’re going to poll a lot of people on a lot of different issues. We already have a report from last year to base the foundation numbers off of, and we’re going to be able to take that and say, “OK, students are frustrated about this, or they love this and they wish it was more marketed.”
probably adjusting to everything that Morgan [Abraham] went through this past year, and he’s been slowly handing me the baton. Within two or three weeks, there’s just so much to learn; it’s kind of like drinking from a fire hose. But once I get over that hurdle, as soon as everybody gets settled in here at ASUA, like these amazing leaders that we’ve recruited, I’m pretty confident and excited to see the amazing things that we’ll be able to accomplish.
What do you think will be the hardest thing for you as president to overcome? The hardest thing for me to overcome is
What are you most looking forward to during your presidential term? Other than working with the amazing people
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You said your biggest fear was letting everyone down. Has that changed in the last couple of weeks? It’s been the exact same, and I think there are two things that drive me, and will probably drive me through the end of the year, and one of them is not letting people down. As I go on in this process, I start to realize how huge of a thing … I’ve just joined. Even after [the ASUA presidential dinner], the pressure got even greater, sitting with the presidents and hearing all their stories and hearing how, even 30 years down the line, they come back. You realize how important it still is to them that the University of Arizona works with the students and vice versa. Whether it’s them or the students who elected me, that’s probably the number one thing that would drive me through next year. How are you going to avoid letting people down? I’m going to put in my full effort from day one until the very last day, because it’s the small things, I feel like, that slip, the details that could have made it great for a student. It’s about being there and catching it.
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