During his freshman year, Duane Ford was looking to get involved with student government on campus, but didn’t know how. Then he met Allie Curtis.

“She explained everything that was going on in SA to me and immediately helped me out and told me what I needed to get involved,” said Ford, who serves as Curtis’ campaign manager.

Ford describes Curtis as “very outgoing, extroverted, driven and personal.” He said he has never met anyone as passionate about something as Curtis is about Student Association.

“SA would not function the way it does without Allie Curtis,” Ford said.

Curtis, who is vice president, will run as the only female candidate in the race for president, pledging to actively represent the student body and reach out to under-represented student organizations.

“I’ve had the most experience and the closest experience to working in the position of president overall,” she said.

If elected as president, Curtis said she will pursue three main objectives: community involvement, more internships and jobs for students and active advocacy within SA.

She said she would continue to sponsor events like Impact Week, a week-long community service event taking place throughout this week that was put together by SA.

“Impact Week has been a huge thing I have been working on,” Curtis said. “I’ve had community service as a huge part of my life for as long as I remember.”

Curtis said Impact Week has been a way for students to connect with organizations off campus and has excited the student body. She said community service is one of her top priorities and that “the central tradition created by Impact Week is going to be lost within any other administration.”

As a representative of the student body, Curtis said she will strive to make internships and jobs more available to students and recent graduates. Many students have trouble obtaining credit for internships, and she believes the process for getting internship credit approved should be a lot easier. She also said more prestigious internships taken by students could help increase Syracuse University’s ranking.

“I want to connect these alumni to students in the graduating class and create as many job connections as possible, and form those connections early on,” Curtis said.

Her final objective centers on improving student body representation within the SA general assembly.

“One-hundred percent capacity has always been a big thing for me,” Curtis said. “Everyone remembers me from last fall as the girl that was running around on campus, to the Warehouse and to ESF, just trying to get to 100 percent representation.”

But for Curtis, it’s not just about quantity; it’s also about quality. She said many SA general assembly representatives are not informed about their home colleges, citing examples like not knowing the dean of their home school. Curtis wants to restructure home college committees to ensure students are properly represented.

“I saw something wrong with the system and realized people weren’t looking out for the students’ interests in the best way possible,” Curtis said. “Ever since the end of my freshman year when I saw that this was the case, I’ve been on a crusade to get people involved the way they are actually supposed to be.”

General assembly member Daniela Lopez has worked with Curtis in SA. Lopez said she is an extremely disciplined person who usually comes through on her promises.

“I know that Allie is the type of person who is extremely dedicated,” Lopez said. “If she wants something she’ll go for it.”

After working with Curtis on multiple group projects for class, Lopez said Curtis collaborates very well, works efficiently under high-pressure and will always make the best of a bad situation.

Lopez also said Curtis was very involved with SA last semester, but feels her presence this semester has diminished. Lopez said she still isn’t clear on Curtis’s campaign initiatives.

As the only female candidate running in the election, Curtis said this gives her a big advantage in the sense that she would bring diversity into SA and would have the ability to reach out to more groups on campus.

“I’ve been able to connect to a lot of groups in different ways,” she said. “Women have something different than the male population in leadership has. I’ve been able to reach out to more feminist organizations.”

One of Curtis’ top concerns is student safety on campus, especially for women. She said she would continue to work with the Department of Public Safety to develop a safer environment on and off campus for students.

“I’ve talked to a lot of girls who feel they have been put in unsafe positions because DPS has refused to come pick them up late in the night,” Curtis said. “Being a woman will put me at a better advantage to make sure safety programs for them are implemented effectively.”

What makes her the most qualified presidential candidate is her experience working as vice president, Curtis said. She also said the difference between president and vice president is just a name, and that she has worked extremely closely with President Dylan Lustig.

“Other candidates have had experience being a committee chair or assembly rep, which is an entirely different role than vice president,” Curtis said. “I don’t think other people realize how tirelessly I work as vice president.”

Published on November 8, 2012 at 1:48 am

Contact Anna: aegiles@syr.edu