Editors Note: This is the first of two stories featuring the candidates running for vice president in the Student Government elections.

Derek Pierce, a freshman finance major, is running for the position of vice president of student affairs in Student Government.

He is one of two candidates currently running for the vice president positions, as the other three

positions are running unopposed.

As a finance major, Pierce said he likes working with budgets and interpreting them and he wanted to join Student Government because he was the president of his class in high school.

He also had two older brothers who came to Eastern, and so he said he knows how Eastern used to be.

“When they were here, every RSO did have very good attendance,” Pierce said. “ A lot of people were involved, it was hard to find a student that wasn’t in at least two or three clubs or RSO.”

He also said he is good friends with the current vice president of student affairs, Yasmin Rodriguez. He helped her with Apportionment Board and was involved with other boards, which required a student representative such as Student Publications Board, and Intercollegiate Athletics Board.

Pierce said after getting to know and understand what Rodriguez does, he became interested in the position.

“I have some experience,” Pierce said. “I’m used to balancing the budget, and having to operate under certain conditions.”

This experience comes from the side business Pierce runs, which is a lawn business he started when he was 13.

“The biggest thing that I really do is focus more on quality than quantity,” Pierce said. “I always make sure that the job is done a hundred percent right because if I’m putting my name on it, I rather be very credible and reliable than just be someone that does the job.”

Pierce said he has learned how to managed money well, including budgeting his own money during the school year.

“There’s a lot of expenses, you got to plan it out well enough,” Pierce said. “If I only budgeted $100 for this month, I can’t go spending $125 on something, I need to be fiscally responsible with it.”

Pierce said he has taken away a sense of hard work, quality, and a through process of thinking through things from running his own business.

“You don’t just want to be a face on the wall or name plate on a door,” Pierce said. “You want to be a face that people can connect with, that can (be) easily approach (with) any concerns, questions. You’re very easy to access.”

Pierce said being reliable and being someone who people can count on is important and he can be counted on to help people, whether it is getting help with sponsoring events, or with any questions they might have.

During Monday’s debate, candidates spoke on how to deal with student apathy on campus, and how they would decrease it.

“The first step, I think, is just establishing a central system or email or schedule or something online that students can be able to access so then they have the information or when every RSO meeting is, location and time,” Pierce said. “The step after that is then coordinating with the RSOs so they notify me of events.”

Pierce said he would like to integrate RSO events into the weekly student affairs email.

“In order to increase student involvement, I would go with creating a search engine so then students could feel free to search the web engine and connect with an RSO that match their interests,” he said.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].