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For Tanner Schinderle, the ASI president for 2026–27, leadership is all about creating opportunities for those around him. Â鶹¹ÙÍø News spoke with Schinderle, a fourth-year political science student, about why he got involved in student government, what his priorities are for his year in office, and how students and campus administrators can work together. 
 
What made you want to run for this role and get involved with student government? 

I've been in student government since I was in sixth grade. I’ve always loved being able to impact those around me, and what greater opportunity to do that at Â鶹¹ÙÍø than in ASI? 

Last year I served as ASI chief of staff, where I got to oversee some big projects including launching a new Grocery Tripper Shuttle service that helped students get from campus to the grocery stores if they didn’t have a car. People were always asking me if I wanted to run for president. I didn’t want to rush into a decision — it’s a 40-hour-per-week commitment, and I had to really know that I wanted to do it. I spent a lot of time last year thinking about it, wanting to know that I had the passion for it, an understanding of the role, and my own vision. I realized that there was so much work that I was doing that would be lost if I didn’t step into this role. I had so many ideas of things I wanted to tackle that it would be a failed opportunity if I didn’t at least try. 

What motivates you as you're thinking about what it means to be in a public service role like this? 

I remember the first day we launched the grocery shuttle service. Seeing students line up for a ride made my day because I got to see something we started actually impact their lives. That's such a cool experience. I’m always thinking about how we can make someone else's life easier. That's what pushes me. 

What are your priorities for your time in office? 

My campaign was all about affordability — housing, food, transportation costs on- and off-campus — and that’s my top priority. That means continuing to expanding transportation services, working with Â鶹¹ÙÍø Partners to bring more affordable food options to campus, and collaborating with Transportation and Parking Services to make commuter spots more accessible while also expanding alternative transportation. 

The next big goal is resources. I’ve always thought there are so many resources on campus to help students, but how do we get students to realize all the options available to them if they’re in need?  

We need to be proactive in presenting resources rather than making students come to us for help.  If you're struggling and you have to go relive your trauma talking to five different people in five different departments, that's not serving the students in a wraparound support system.  

My third priority is building a sense of community. That means more school spirit, making sure students love Â鶹¹ÙÍø and want to be here, which is why we’re doing things like hosting huge football tailgate events. But it also means making sure every student has a sense of belonging.  I would love for Â鶹¹ÙÍø Maritime Academy students to feel like they're a part of our campus community.  

And the last big priority is student action — bringing student voices into the room when important decisions about campus are being made. 

What are the students you represent worried about, and how can ASI help? 

What I hear the most is, "I don't want to give up going to Â鶹¹ÙÍø in order to be able to afford to live." Students struggle every day on this campus with the cost of housing, with the cost of food, with the ability to even get to campus. Students need to be able to show up on campus without having to worry about what they’re going to eat or where they're sleeping that night. What ASI can do is make sure these issues are a factor in every conversation we have with campus administration, that it’s crucial to meet basic needs now more than ever. 

The affordability issue goes way beyond Â鶹¹ÙÍø. It’s something the CSU is facing, that the state is facing, and that everyone is feeling. The university has emergency housing grants, long-term housing programs for students, and have long-term food programming.  We have a great CalFresh outreach team that helps students access EBT funds. But they’re not necessarily easily visible to students who are really struggling, and they shouldn't have to spend hours researching support on top of what they’re already dealing with.  My goal is for ASI to help connect students with resources and help them work through the process of accessing those resources. 

What have the first few weeks of your term as ASI president been like? 

Over the summer, my first priority was building our executive cabinet. My job is to lay out the vision, the goals and the initiatives that our cabinet is going to be working on for the year. I spent a lot of early summer figuring out the big priorities, the key events that we need to have, the surveys we're gonna put out to students, and how are we gonna be visible to the student population.  We have 10 different secretaries working on aspects of student government, and I created a list of tasks for each of us to focus on as we work toward goals for the year. Then the second thing is connecting with the university administration. I spent a lot of time in meetings with different campus administrators, learning about their roles, areas of collaboration, and figuring out my big points of advocacy for the year.  I've had a lot of conversations around basic needs and especially transportation, and how we can better improve transportation access for students beyond just needing a car to get to campus.  

But it's kind of a mix of everything. I feel like the role of president is to try to be in as many rooms as possible, giving the student perspective on big decisions. 

How does your relationship with the administration shape what you can do in student government? How much can student government impact what students experience at Â鶹¹ÙÍø? 

I think we have one of the greatest influences on the student experience, and it's because we get to be in those rooms where decisions are made.  We serve on university wide committees dealing with everything from fees to housing to student success. I serve as co-chair of at least three different fee committees that oversee tens of millions of dollars in funding for student success and student support.  Our conversations and our priorities really provide direction to the administration.  

I think we have a great relationship and an equal understanding of partnership.  ASI doesn't want to do this alone. We want these campus partners to move with us. It wouldn't make sense for us to move the needle on basic needs by ourselves. We should be doing that alongside our partners in Campus Health and Wellbeing and the dean of students. Student government is most effective when it brings in the student perspective that shapes how these different organizations on campus move forward. 

What are your goals after college as a political science major? What do you hope to accomplish, and how do you think your experiences doing this job might factor in? 

Right off the bat, the plan is to go to Washington, D.C., take a year off school and get some work experience. But then I want to go to law school, and I’m not sure what comes after that. This position is teaching me communication skills, how to interact and engage with different people. It’s also teaching me how to prioritize things. There are a million issues on this campus that I could focus on every day, so being able to prioritize and know what I can actually get done in a day and in a year will be really impactful in my long-term career. 

What do you hope to accomplish for students this year? 

Expanding transportation access would be awesome. To leave this office knowing that students don’t have to worry about how they're getting to campus or around campus or to the places they need to be, that would be a success. Basic needs services being better supported and more visible would be a success, and I would love to see more students who want to be on campus and involved in the community.  

My dream would be that if you’re a student, you're headed home from class but you see a concert going on in the UU Plaza, so you want to stay an extra hour just to be able to hang out and be a part of the community. Helping to create a greater sense of purpose and belonging on campus would be the greatest legacy I could leave. 

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