By D Turk | Staff Reporter
Jacob Windstead has just been re-elected as president of ASWSUV—an event that has only happened three times in the organization’s 35-year history.
As to why he won reelection, the main reason is simple: no one ran against him. Windstead isn’t entirely sure why that was, but he noticed that many students reached out to him expressing interest in the Vice President position after he announced his search for a running mate.
“Part of me was happy to see that people wanted to run with me, rather than against me,” Windstead said.
Windstead is an electrical engineering major in his junior year and may also pursue a minor in math, although he joked that it “depends on the bandwidth in my brain juice.” Originally, he was focused on the arts and wanted to be a cinema major.
“I have a very big appreciation for all things movies and media,” he said.
Eventually, a manager at an nLIGHT facility specializing in semiconductor and fiber lasers gave him a tour. That experience sparked a shift in direction, and Windstead decided to pursue electrical engineering. He still enjoys cinema, but now more as a hobby.
When he began seeking work in ASWSUV, Windstead was honest—he needed a job, and ASWSUV offered paid positions. But once he started exploring the history of student government at WSU Vancouver, he became intrigued by its potential and the access it provided to campus leadership.
The reelection of an ASWSUV president is uncommon. Windstead attributes it to the fact that most presidents serve during their senior year—and graduates are ineligible to run again.
From his experience, a president spends the first few months simply figuring out how everything works.
“I feel like you don’t understand this role until you’ve been in it for at least a year,” Windstead said. “Because the first couple of months, you’re just trying to figure out what the heck is going on, you know?”
That was one of the major frustrations Windstead faced this year. He found that documentation from the previous 33 ASWSUV teams was scattered across email inboxes, physical folders, and even floppy disks.
He spent much of the school year reorganizing documentation, standardizing procedures, and establishing bookkeeping practices. He and his team faced multiple roadblocks due to the chaotic state of ASWSUV’s records.
This is one of the reasons he ran for reelection. With the foundation now in place, Windstead hopes to do much more during his second term.
He wants students to feel welcome in ASWSUV, noting that student government can seem “off-putting” or “kinda clique-y.” For whoever comes after him, he recommends not jumping straight into the presidency but gaining experience in other ASWSUV roles first. The Director of Campus and Community Outreach, he said, is a great way to build the skills needed to connect across campus.
“You gotta know everything across the board to be able to provide students the support they need,” he said.
Windstead also offers a caution: while the president is paid for up to 20 hours of work per week, the role often demands far more than that.
“It’s a lot of sleepless nights,” he said. “But the thing is, any tiredness or exhaustion that you may have—I’m the type of person where it all gets washed away when someone says ‘thank you for doing this.’ It actually matters.”