On Wednesday, April 13, Tammi Fleet was elected the new director of university affairs in the Associated Students government. Fleet sat down with The Orion to answer some questions and talk about her plans in this new position.

How long have you been attending Chico State?

Fleet: I am ending two years right now.

What are you majoring in?

Computer science.

Do you think that had any effect on why you ran for director?

A little bit. I feel like computer science is very underrepresented. Not just computer science but the whole college in general is underrepresented. When I got involved in government affairs last year it was because no one was running for the senator position for the college of engineering, computer science and construction management, and I thought that was a really big shame and that’s how I got involved. I want to continue that representation on campus, so my major I think did have a small impact on how I got into government affairs.

Why did you run for director of university affairs?

The past year I’ve been the senator for the college of ECC and I’ve been working very closely with Michael Pratt who currently holds the position, and I just kinda saw what he’s been doing on campus and felt like I could make an impact in that way, and I felt very prepared for this position.

What do you hope to accomplish as director of university affairs?

I hope to bring visibility to the A.S. The director of university affairs and the senate are supposed to be representing the students on academic matters on campus, and I feel that students don’t know that we are a resource for them and that we’re kind of their avenue for representation — so more visibility within the colleges and just kind of advocate the student voice. We have a new admin coming in, a new president and new provost hopefully in the new year, so there’s an opportunity to bring in new connections and relationships.

How do you think that will directly affect students?

There’s been times in the past where students’ voices have not been heard and decisions have been made on this campus without the student input. In the past, certain programs or classes have been cut and people can’t graduate, so making sure that we have both reactive and proactive stances on it. So we’re proactive in not letting these measures go through, but we are also reactive in so many decisions that have already been made on this campus and making sure we’re fixing them.

Have you been in contact with Gayle Hutchinson and what are your plans for working with the Chico State administration?

I want to say a couple of weeks ago she was here on Chico State’s campus as student leaders from university met with her and kinda talked about what we had identified on this campus to be problems. Moving forward, I would say meeting with her and having open discussions about what’s going to happen on this campus. I think Gayle Hutchinson will be more interactive with the campus and more present, so just making sure she follows through.

Amelia Storm and Michael Catelli can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.