Candidate Profile: Marco Suarez
By CHP Staff

Marco Suarez is running in the SUA election as a candidate for the position of Stevenson College representative. Suarez, a first-year Stevenson student, has in the last year interned for the commissioner of academic affairs, acted as the internal vice chair for the campus Queer Union, and worked with the Stevenson Student Union.

Suarez said that if elected, one of his priorities would be to maintain the healthy communication between Stevenson students and the SUA and to have the SUA focus less on external issues and more on campus, which would involve using resources available to the SUA to directly improve student life.

Suarez said that he would also help develop stronger channels of communication between students and the administration, which would involve including students in discussions on budget issues that affect the academic future of UCSC students.

One of Suarez’s main goals is to ensure that Stevenson College remains a popular hub for hosting student events. Suarez said that in order to preserve Stevenson’s attraction to students from other campus colleges interested in bringing their events to Stevenson, he would make sure that the SUA demonstrates better fiscal responsibility next year to avoid depleting its budget prematurely.

Suarez said UCSC is unique from other UCs because its primary concern is undergraduate education. For Suarez, this means it is extra important to ensure strong representation for undergraduates in student government and within the administration.

“Because of that, I want to be a part of the student leadership of that undergraduate body,” Suarez said. “We are essentially what makes UC Santa Cruz.”