Gabe Berkey

Hello! My name is Gabe Berkey, I am a Sophomore here at the lovely University of Arizona, and I am running to be one of your next ASUA Senators At-Large. I am from Ridgefield, Washington, and I have always had a passion for leadership. I have participated in countless clubs and organizations since high school, with being a part of student council, National Honor Society and DECA, and being nominated by my school to be the Senior Class Speaker are some examples. Since my arrival here at the U of A, I have taken part in both freshman and sophomore honoraries while having leadership roles in both, and also joined the Comedy Corner club to widen my interests and experiences here. 
In regards to ASUA, I have several ideas of various things that I would like to accomplish. In a broader sense, I want to serve as the middleman between the student body and the University, being able to connect the people and organizations that need help with the people who have the ability to help them and make change. I plan on being watchful and aware of overall well being on campus for both students and centers, and if a change needs to be made I will be the one working to advocate and make that change. 
In a more specific sense, I would love to use this position of leadership to focus into the University’s CAPS program. After the tragic shooting of Professor Thomas Meixner, it was advertised that CAPS would be offering free programs and support to any student that needed it. However, when students would try to call CAPS to try and utilize these free resources, they would either be sent to voicemail or the line would simply say “line disconnected”. I am not doubting that the services would have been free, but what seems to be the problem is that CAPS did not have the personnel available to adequately support the needs of a school with 30,000+ students. What I would hope to accomplish is educating myself with the resources available to see how the CAPS funding is allocated, and then working with them and the University in hopes to get CAPS the funding, support, and team that they need so that they can properly support the student body of a school this size. 
Additionally, I would love to use this position of leadership to focus on how the UAlert system truly works. From a student’s perspective, the alert system is significantly delayed in when the messages are being sent in relation to the real time events. I would love to work with the team behind UAlert to see if the messaging system can be refined in a way that is more accurate and effective in warning students of threats and dangers on campus of which they should be aware.
I look forward to the opportunity to be an asset to ASUA. I will work to create positive change for the campus and student body.