Benjy Egel
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- President of Poly Canyon Village (2012-13)
- Board of Directors Representative (College of Engineering) for last two years
- Cal Poly Homecoming Prince (2012)
- Campaign Slogan: “Poly Wins With Paquin”
Civil engineering junior Connor Paquin has a unique career goal for a student of his major: a job tying engineering and politics together. But first, he hopes to engineer a successful run for Associated Students, Inc. (ASI) president.
As an ASI Board of Directors representative who worked extensively as part of the Student Success Fee Committee, Paquin is no stranger to the inner workings of Cal Poly politics.
“I’ve seen how it goes behind the scenes, I’ve seen what meetings are like and how things go,” Paquin said. “I know the direction we can take this, and I know the strong leadership that we need.”
With computer engineering junior Will Blumhardt disqualified from the race, Paquin is now the College of Engineering’s (COE) lone representative. Some COE voters who would have sided with Blumhardt might now switch their allegiance to Paquin.
Paquin’s experience on the inside opened his eyes to how easily some elected representatives can be swayed by the administration, he said. He pledged to be focused on business first, with little influence from gifts and food.
“There are people who get wined and dined by the administration, and it shouldn’t be that way,” he said. “We’re elected to really voice the concerns of our students, no matter what those concerns are. You can buy me a $60 dinner at Sage and at the end of the day after that, if we’re in a meeting, our heads are in the game.”
In the past year, Paquin saw greek life leaders pushed into a party registration compromise fueled more by the administration’s desires than students’ preferences.
When fraternity and sorority leaders refused to agree to the school’s original proposition, all chapters were placed on social probation.
“Maybe social probation wasn’t the best idea, or wasn’t the best thing to do as we were going through these negotiations,” Paquin said. “Maybe it felt a little intimidating.”
Another Board of Directors representative from the COE, software engineering sophomore Myra Lukens, serves as Paquin’s campaign manager. Paquin also said one of his closest student government allies is business administration sophomore Tina Li, who is a member of current ASI President Jason Colombini’s executive cabinet.
Paquin spoke of expunging the “old blood” of ASI in exchange for new ideas. The fresh input would come from students around campus, who Paquin said would be heard better with him in charge.
ASI’s current relationship with students involves a lot of explaining why existing policies are effective and not enough listening to ordinary students’ ideas on how to improve campus life, Paquin said.
“As much as I love student government, we don’t know everything,” he said. “We are 40 people (and) there are 19,000 students on this campus. We just get caught up in going to meetings day-to-day and don’t even see the people we represent unless we have class with them.”
If elected, Paquin said he would hold daily office hours where anyone could meet with him to voice opinions and concerns, a strategy Colombini started this year.
Paquin praised Colombini’s student-driven approach and called him a leadership role model. He recalled a time when he and Colombini were given approximately $32 each for food or parking permits when traveling to a conference in the Bay Area.
Colombini and Paquin each spent $6 on a fast-food dinner during their drive up, Paquin said. After incurring no further costs on the trip, Colombini handed his remaining $26 back into ASI funds, prompting Paquin to do the same.
“That hasn’t happened (in the past), most people just keep the money,” Paquin said. “I definitely learned from that. He’s doing an incredible job.”