Meet the SBP Candidate: Blake Ashley

|| Photo courtesy of Blake Ashley

Blake Ashley, Humanities major and current president of the House of C.S. Lewis, didn’t plan on running for SBP this year. It wasn’t until the moment he heard about the cancellation of Fall Retreat for the 2020-2021 school year that he decided that it was time to run again. 

“It was really hard to run,” Ashley said. “To lose was really hard as well. I wasn’t eager to go through that again or at least risk it. I was actually leaning towards not running until we found out Fall Retreat was cancelled. It put the pep in my step again about student politics here.” 

Though this is Ashley’s second time running, he believes that it was positive that Koby Jackson became SBP for the 2019-2020 school year. He admires Jackson and his Cabinet’s leadership decisions. 

“I could not be more pleased with the job he’s done. I'm honestly so thankful that he’s President,” Ashley said. “He’s done an awesome job. He picked an excellent Cabinet as well. If I could replicate what they did this year, I’d be happy. To take the success they’ve had and build on it in a few minor ways as I outline in my platform would be awesome.”

Though Ashley knows that the SBP doesn’t have the power to make the executive decision to bring back Fall Retreat, he recently released his comprehensive plan  to convince the administration toward a more financially feasible option for the fall of 2021. 

“I believe that President Gibson and his Cabinet will be receptive to a well-thought out, reasonable and respectful plan that goes through the proper channels,” Ashley said. “That is the most the President can do next year—or any year—is to bring well-thought out plans for the student body.”

Along with the Fall Retreat plan, Ashley wants to bring back Basketball Competition and create a complement to the Fall Picnic—a Spring Picnic. He hopes to continue to work to connect the student body through these campus-wide events, preserving the college’s individuality.

“Our community is extremely unique. We have things and we do things that sound like a foreign language to anybody at another college,” Ashley said. “The main reason I want to run is to preserve what I think The King’s College is. When that community aspect starts slipping away, we become your regular old commuter college, and we will lose because we cost twice as much.”

Ashley also plans to extend discipleship in the community by working alongside Christian Formation to advertise external Christian organizations and create a church directory that’s more accessible to the student body.

Though not released in his platform, Ashley also plans to start a conversation about new environmentally forward procedures that could cut down the amount of pages each professor uses for each class if each professor decided to opt in.

Ashley also plans to further involve House Presidents in major proposals to the administration. He wants to see a parliamentary procedure where each House President will work with the SBP and the Cabinet in order to reach a more representative sample of the student body when making decisions. 

At the lower level, Ashley has proposed a Google Form “Hotline.” This establishes a direct line of communication that allows every student to voice concerns, comments and ideas to the SBP and their Cabinet.

To increase transparency, Ashley also wants to begin publishing monthly financial reports to the student body that allow them to see where the SBP and Cabinet’s attention is going, keeping them involved in administrative decision making. 

As a member of the Student Org Committee and the president of the House of C.S. Lewis, Ashley received first hand experience working with systems at King’s. As SBP, he plans to distinguish formal reports of the systems that allow each student leader to be successful.

“I am not the same as when I entered this place,” Ashley said. “I want to continue what King’s means to me and what King’s means to us as a student body and preserve that for future generations, while also correcting the things we need to have hard conversations about.”