A typical day in the life of Associated Students, Inc (ASI) President and agricultural science senior Owen Schwaegerle consists of class and a lot of meetings.
“Even though it’s mostly meetings, I really love what I do,” Schwaegerle said. “It may be challenging, but it’s definitely rewarding.”
When he is not in meetings, Schwaegerle is representing ASI through various speaking opportunities downtown, with Cal Poly President Jeffrey Armstrong or with advisory councils.
Schwaegerle’s campaign, Anchor with Owen, focused on a platform of three S’: student fees, student safety and school spirit. His goal is to make students feel “anchored” by focusing on each of the S’.
“(The) anchor was the symbol of what we wanted every student at Cal Poly to feel, which was grounded,” Schwaegerle said.
Flex Your Right was the first step in getting students anchored within the Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo community. As of Sept. 23, they have registered approximately 1,700 students to vote.
“I’m really proud of Flex Your Right. The first day with the Storm the Dorms, we went in and 800 students registered that day,” Schwaegerle said. “It had such a huge turnout that it was one of the most exciting projects we have done so far this year.”
As for student safety, ASI is promoting an app called TapShield which promotes the prevention of crimes through communication between users and the authorities.
“We have been promoting this app because we want to create a safety web for campus,” Schwagerele said. “The more people that use it, the safer our campus can be.”
An upcoming event, Mental Health Awareness Week, will focus on student health and well-being in the Julian A. McPhee University Union (UU) Plaza during dead week of winter quarter. It will showcase campus resources including PULSE, Safer and counseling services.
“It is a very real problem on our campus and I feel like students need to have that information,” Schwaegerle said. “It really touches me because I know so many students who have struggled with depression and anxiety.”
In the final stage of his platform, Schwaegerle advocates for increased school spirit.
“School spirit is something we want to instill in students because it is much bigger than just going to athletic events,” Schwaegerle said. “It’s about being Mustang proud and giving back to school in some way.”
Another aspect of Schwaegerle’s platform is to increase advocacy efforts and community relations. ASI participated in Good Neighbor Day on Oct. 3 where 80 students helped clean neighborhoods around Cal Poly.
ASI is also in the works of setting up the Neighbors Optimizing Wellness (NOW) committee with the tagline: “We can’t wait until tomorrow, take action NOW!”
“I really want to get that started soon so we can work with the community and show we are being proactive and trying to improve relationships,” Schwaegerle said.
There are more opportunities to get anchored on campus, Schwaegerle said. Students can become a member of ASI through the executive Green Team, which is an entry level team in ASI that allows students to be a part of the organization and attend events.
“It has huge appeal to a lot of freshmen who have joined and found their anchor through ASI,” Schwaegerele said.
However, his efforts will continue until the end of the year.
“We are doing our best to get students anchored still to this day,” Schwaegerle said.