On the evening of Friday, May 2, Portland State University (PSU) community members gathered at the Simon Benson House to view the results of the 2025 Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU) elections. At the event, it was revealed that the student body had elected Brady Roland and Rowan Bean of the slate PSU4YOU to serve a second term as president and vice president. The slate won with 1086 votes, defeating the opposing slate—Elevate PSU—by 374 votes.
Roland and Bean have both served in ASPSU for the past two academic years, with the next academic term representing their seventh in the institution.
The PSU4YOU slate focuses its platform on student safety and advocacy, campus engagement, mental health and administrative transparency. In prior terms, they’ve pushed for Campus Public Safety Office (CPSO) accountability, cutting ties with Boeing and expanding support for non-resident and commuter students. Mental health is a high priority for the administration, with plans to continue funding the Camelia Self-Care Group—a program they created in the aftermath of the 2024 Party in the Park tragedy, in which a student suffered a fatal fall from a campus parking garage.
In case you missed the presidential and vice presidential debates last month, here are some of the highlight statements from Roland and Bean.
What is the most pressing issue on campus right now, and how would you practically address it?
Roland: I think student voice suppression… Students are trying to show up and speak out for what they believe in, and our message is getting across to every corner of campus. Every community member, everyone who’s ever, you know, cared about Portland State, we’re reaching them. But then administration seems to have a cloud in front of their eyes where they can’t really see what we’re saying, and that’s so frustrating…We’re in a place where everything they decide affects us, and so our voice should be the loudest on campus.
Bean: It’s really hard to pick one thing, and that’s low-key, unfortunate that it’s hard to pick one thing… I think the biggest question that I hear a lot is where our tuition dollars are going…[last year] we wrote and passed that resolution to cut ties with Boeing. And then this year we wrote and passed another resolution in tangent with that… a financial sustainability resolution. That was to explore where our money is coming from. Because I think we can all agree that we don’t really want militarized companies and things like that.
Why do students not vote, and how would you specifically increase turnout in future elections?
Bean: As we know, this… is a huge commuter school, so not a lot of people are here on campus all the time… We have been tabling every single week [each] term to be able to just get our faces out there and to also let students know, hey, this is what we have going on right now. Hey, here’s a resolution that we’re writing right now, and take a look at it… We have our podcast where we interview student leaders, professors [and] different stakeholders on campus… We have our newsletter… So we’re putting in efforts… online as well.
Roland: Yeah, we’re doing a lot to increase engagement… What we’ve been doing to really increase turnout is… much [more] face to face outreach, because when you tell one person, and they tell their friends and their friends tell their friends, you can get a coalition built. And so right now, we’re really just trying to build a coalition… How can we organize? How can we be one? So just reminding students that we are here for you and we want to advocate for you no matter what… student groups is definitely covered, or it will be next year for sure.
As the Trump administration cracks down on DEI programs and international students are left in limbo, what steps will your administration take to address the concerns of students most impacted by these actions?
Roland: We wrote something called the Non-Resident Student Success Program Resolution. And the resolution passed… International students are being targeted more than anything… We want to make a big aspect of this program international student legal and financial support… If you find out tomorrow that your visa has been revoked because… [you were] around during a protest… and the Trump administration found out. Like, that’s scary, and there should be a place where you can go to get help at this school.
Bean: One of the things that we can do right now is meet with those students who are being directly affected… and just be like, hey, what do you need… so that you still feel safe. We can support our resource centers, those communities that the international students have… We can’t stop the federal government. What we can do is boost the resources that we do have… [to help] those students feel safe.
