Sen. Amanda Sims, the Horizon slate candidate for vice president of ASUNM, said if re-elected, she would use her experience coupled with new ideas to serve students.
"My experience as a senator and as finance chair has given me a lot of interaction with students," Sims said. "Jennifer Onuska and Heather Gabel have done a great job this year communicating with students. They have been really innovative and I think I could continue to add to that communication between ASUNM and the students."
She said the best way to communicate with students is to be accessible and she would work hard to make sure senators were fulfilling their duties.
"Contact with students is vital," Sims said. "Senators need to be responsible." Correspondence and feedback from student groups on how their senators are doing would make senators accountable, she said.
"I've noticed a lot of executive agency activity in the outreach days this year, but there needs to be more emphasis on senators being out there," Sims said.
Sims said that the reason she is running with the Horizon slate is because she believes it is an experienced, dedicated group of individuals.
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"Eight out of the 12 people on the slate are already involved with ASUNM in some capacity," she said. "We have the current president, senators, the vice presidential aide and people involved in the executive agencies. We also have people involved with the dorms, residence halls and athletics. We are a very diverse slate."
Sims added that if elected as vice president, she would focus the issues that students are most concerned with.
"I think the parking situation is the greatest concern right now," she said. "With the new parking structure, a lot of students are concerned that the tennis courts or lower Johnson field may be sacrificed. Forums sponsored by ASUNM can help alleviate students' anxiety by giving them useful information on these issues."
Sims said the accomplishments she is most proud of as a UNM student are being Panhellenic Council president, being named Greek Woman of the Year, winning a seat on the Senate in last spring's election and being chairwoman of the Finance Committee. She added that as chairwoman of the finance committee, she worked diligently to balance the ASUNM budget for student groups.
"There was a large amount of money for a large amount of groups," Sims said. "We were very excited to have done it accurately and fairly with most of the groups happy with what they received."
Sims correctly identified Andrea Cook, James Koch and Sandra Begay-Campbell as regents; MEChA, HESO and the Unicycling and Juggling Club as student groups; Brian Foster as provost and Chris Garcia as president.
