Josephine Ampaw

Josephine Ampaw, third-year political science and feminist studies major. Daily Nexus Photography Staff

Independent candidate Josephine Ampaw is the only student registered in this year’s race for S.A.G. Should she be voted in as S.A.G., Ampaw will be the first black woman elected to the position.

As an advocate, her passions are broad and her goals broader. However, to serve as an effective S.A.G. she will have to establish a more focused approach to her extensive platform.

Ampaw currently works as Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of the Student Advocate and has direct experience working with the current S.A.G. She considers it one of her primary objectives to uphold minority groups, serving as an executive in Pan-African Student Union and Black Student Union.

Heading Ampaw’s platform is her goal to make S.A.G. resources available to a wider spectrum of students. As she puts it, she wants to be “the S.A.G. that listened.” Her plans include setting up forums for students to meet with office representatives and diversifying casework.

Ampaw hopes to identify members of underrepresented communities and encourage them to speak on behalf of their community, and intends to create an office that is “an honest representation of what students look like.”

Amongst Ampaw’s most compelling stances is her desire to increase A.S. budget transparency. She wants to give every student access to the A.S. budget and insists on being open about student government spending.

“A.S. is getting way too much money for people to not know what we’re doing with it.” — Josephine Ampaw

Ampaw also plans to devote more attention to the prominent issue of plagiarism amongst university students. She wants to implement trained academic counselors within the OSA to combat this issue — a plan that will fulfill a deep need in undergraduate learning. The “legacy” of the incumbent S.A.G., Joseline Garcia, is implementation of community organizers, Ampaw says. To build upon Garcia’s work, Ampaw wants to establish continuity by creating a casework manual for the future Office of the Student Advocate.

Ampaw’s goals are extensive and may become unwieldy if she is not able to hone in on specifics. She does, however, have several realistic goals and will succeed in office if she is supported by her experience and organizational ability.

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