Brandon Kamstra, a junior in kinesiology and health and current Interfraternity Council (IFC) senator, is running to represent the College of Human Sciences on the senate.

Student Government is a student organization that exists to serve and represent all students, according to the student organization database. Other student organizations can apply for funding through Student Government, which according to their website, has roughly $2.6 million in annual student fee revenue to distribute.

The Student Government elections will take place March 7-8. Ballots will be emailed to students’ Iowa State email addresses.

Why do you want to return to Student Government?

“I think there’s a lot of just kind of disconnect between Student Government, and just general student populations, Greek life, even cotreatment sciences, most people that I have a conversation with about Student Government, when they don’t realize the amount of things that we do. And […] they have no idea what they can come to us with. Yeah, whether that’s issues or funding or just assistance overall.”

What was your biggest accomplishment while in Student Government?

“I haven’t worked on many projects, but I’ve done a lot of kind of just awareness, and like promotion of Student Government.”

“[One of the biggest] projects that I did that didn’t go to a bill was working with IFC and student engagement […] and meeting with them and kind of moderating a conversation between the new operations manuals that they’re requiring, because they haven’t been updated in 10 years. It’s a completely viable request.”

“Currently, I’m on a project with Senator [Ella] Slade and Ryan Doyle about getting Narcan accessibility across campus. Triangle fraternity was the [chapter] who brought it to IFC and got Narcan into […] a few other chapters, and we’re trying to get that across campus now.”

What are the biggest issues facing your constituents, and how will you address them?

“A lot of people don’t know about the College of Human Sciences, a lot of people don’t know about the programs that we have, whether that’s pre-med students, pre-vet students, the options that we have for students to get their name out there, network, but also build a resume–work with patients, work in the lab.”

“I think we just need to get our name out there as clubs, as a college–as a major–and just kind of better advertise ourselves to different groups.”

What are your qualifications for being a senator?

“I’ve learned a lot, especially the last two months and some of the projects that I’ve done on Student Government. [I’ve] set up a lot of meetings with different professors and just like department chairs and stuff like that.”

“I’m also former president of my chapter, Beta Theta Pi Fraternity. I serve on Greek Week […] a week long celebration among Greek life and it’s a big team collaboration. I’ve learned a lot about like teamwork, and like just different logistics of events and stuff like that, and kind of broadened my perspective as to what different people in different majors and groups are struggling with.”

Why should students vote for you?

“My passion and grit is one of my biggest attributes, and like the way that I try to fight for everybody, regardless of if they’re in my college or in Greek life, or whatever, I try to fight for everybody.”

“I’ve really learned a lot about asking different opinions and different voices and learning how to voice those better, so I try to put a lot of care in hearing both sides to every story, but also hearing [from those not usually] heard from. And then yeah, I’d love to keep working on this Narcan project.”

“That’s a big project that takes a lot of hands and kind of works its way up to the legislature of Iowa and stuff like that. And yeah, I’d love to represent the constituency of the College of Human Sciences, because I love my major, I love the friends that I’ve made in it and would love to represent them.”