Editor’s Note: I sat down with SGA Presidential Candidate, Jeremi Moore, to discuss why he deserves the title of SGA President. 

Q: For those people who think the SGAs only job is to provide fun events and that’s the basis on whether or not you’re a “good president,” what do you say to them?

A: “So I say to those types of people that if that was the case, then we wouldn’t have a functioning government, then you wouldn’t have a productive Senate and you wouldn’t see true long lasting change in event. But it’s momentary. But for physical change, you’ll get on Twitter about. That comes through policymaking, that comes through our legislative branch. That comes through intentional conversations. That comes through the executive. The true role of the executive board is to push the government.”

Q: As the SGA President has the final authority on several rules and regulations, what does accountability mean to you in response to adhering to the SGA constitution?

A: “That’s really true. I’m going to be the guy for the next year that the fingers pointed at from the beginning of my term on May 1st to the last day, next year on April 30th. So I think accountability is really important. The first part of that is having people around you that are going to tell you the truth, my executive board will tell me the truth. And as of now, I’m just going to speak from Treyvon Connor, who’s unopposed, and Dylan Stallworth, both of those individuals I know will tell me the truth. So that’s the first part of accountability, having people around you to check and balance you. I think as far as it goes within our judicial branch, the guys that we’re considering for that spot, I believe that he’ll hold me accountable. Our attorney general, of the people that we’re considering for that spot, will also hold me accountable. And I think when you accept this position, you ultimately sign an accountability clause to be transparent, number one.  Number two, you essentially signed a verbal clause stating that your word is your bond. And we feel very strongly about that. Dylan and I, we’ve been committed to the cause of almost every problem on this campus since the first day since joining ASU.”

Q: Election season has been deemed a “popular contest” by several students at the university, and not on a record of accomplishments.  Can you please tell the student body what you have accomplished as SGA Treasurer, governmentally, to improve the quality of their student life since you have been in office for two years already?

A: “Technically it is based on popularity because it’s literally the concept of who can get the most votes and who people connect with the most, who talks to the most people. So that statement is true. It’s literally a plurality of the votes. So whoever gets the most. But secondly. I think it is strongly about what an individual has accomplished to get to that position. For me, a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated Student Orientation Services early on in my career college, NAACP, First-Year Leadership Empowerment Academy, the list goes on. So we have and I have been actively working. If you check the fact sheet on those accolades, the mayor’s young professional council, we’ve been highly involved. Aspire, Mentor, and we did some good events with them. But to focus simply on the things that I’ve done in my two terms as SGA Treasurer. One thing about the printer initiative that didn’t follow all the way through, but the fact that we, through conversation, got a printer and almost every dormitory that shows one the power, though it didn’t fall all the way through, unfortunately, due to some technology reasons. Secondly, the fact that when they came out with the idea for the parking decal, the No Limit Administration was able to combat that issue and lower the price down by $25. So that’s a whole $25 to $50, actually. So that’s the whole thing. And secondly, every year through our advocacy, we’ve granted ten free parking decals. So that’s about 20 parking decals in total. If you do 50 times 10 that’s certainly a big number. But when you just look at those numbers, you see the direct physical impact. When you talk about our past two annual operating budgets and this last one, we passed it in the first Senate meeting. So that alone shows how progressive we were getting in, how we were learning from past experiences. The first time it took me like three Senate meetings. This time it took me one, because we were intentional. When we talk about the student experience, we’ve been able to do more in a cost efficient manner. We still have 80% of our budget left. So that means that I’ve done a good job of allocating funds and staying on Gem and Jalen about being conscious of how we spend. So when you think about those things, I think you see a lot of the contributions that I made.” 

Q: Serving in both the  2020-2021 “No Limit Administration,” under the leadership of David Hammond and the  2021-2022 “Next Level Administration,” under the leadership of Gem Richardson, what have you learned from both of them and what did they do that you will not do as president?

A: “So for the first thing is, I want to commend both of them. Leadership is hard. I’ve seen David Hammond cry. I’ve just seen Gem Richardson get upset. I’ve seen us at our lowest when we lost a student. But I’ve also seen 700 students with headphones on singing “My Love.” So I’ve seen us when we’re at our brightest. And I’ve seen us handle situations extremely well, send out responses immediately. And I’ve seen us be delayed. So I think I’ve seen a lot. But what I will say is I learned a little from each of them. From David, I learned to be as personable as possible, to be genuine, to connect with students. From Gem, I learned to be stern to whatever your point is, let that be your point. I learn to ask for more. And then you get what you get. So in the sense of if you need $1,000, ask for $1,500, then they’ll come down to $1000. So we learned all of that. We learned how to adequately put together events, the processes, the departments that are needed. So we learned a lot and it’s been a long two years. It’s been a crazy journey to this position. But I think God has a way of working everything out.”

Q: The president published a 2030 strategic plan for the university.  How does your administration “Power – Moving ASU Forward” line up with that strategic plan?  

A: “So I’ll be truthful. We’ll have to do a strategic plan when we take office. And even before that, we’ll have to kind of discuss that strategic plan with the administration, but also amongst ourselves. As of now, I’m not informed enough to give an opinion on that, but from what I can tell, it does look like, through just meetings that we’ve been having, and the knowing the amount of financial investment that’s going into the university, how we’re now putting people in place in certain departments that haven’t been filled. I think we’re looking good in the future. I think we have some good things going, but it’s about if we’re good, we’ve got to get better, right? We’ve got to become great.”

Q: As the SGA President is known to be the liaison between the university administration and the student body, what message do you want to leave the student body before voting on April 11 and 12?

A: “I want our student body to know that Dylan and I care. When you look at the election, there’s 3000 or 3500 students on campus, but only two students signed their name on a dotted line to lead a university for a whole academic school year. So that shows you a lot. That shows you about our characters and commitment. Additionally, I want students to know that we are here. We don’t need anyone amplifying their voices on social media. It’s not necessary. We are here. We can be reached on social media. We’re very good about it. I post all the time, so I want our students to know that we are here for them. Know that we’re easily accessible. And thirdly, I want them to know that this is going to be a great year, that they can trust everyone that’s in this position and that we have a commitment to helping and just trying to push forward, like we say.”