Campaigning for senate seats and executive offices in Undergraduate Student Government began Monday after being delayed due to class cancellations and campus health concerns over COVID-19.
All campaigning will take place digitally through Zoom meetings and on social media.
Voting will also take place digitally, beginning on April 14.
Each executive ticket has one person running for president, another for vice president of services and one for vice president of policy.
The president oversees both of the vice presidents while maintaining a relationship with the student body on their respective campus. The VPS is in charge of overseeing service and program operations within USG. The VPP oversees operations within USG that create policy for the University, like the Senate.
The following are executive tickets for each campus.
Tempe
There are three tickets this year for Undergraduate Student Government Tempe.
The first has Jacqueline Palmer for president, Joshua Freid for VPS and Kajol Kapadia for VPP.
Palmer and Kapadia currently hold positions in USGT as director of public relations and director of student affairs, respectively. Freid is social chairman of Lambda Chi Alpha.
According to their campaign website, the ticket wants to "solidify the relationship between students and administration on all of ASU’s campuses’."
"We are the connecting link between students and administration to facilitate student lead initiatives," said Palmer, a junior triple majoring in digital marketing, political science and business law.
Through transparency, the ticket's website says it wants a "direct outreach" to its clubs and organizations.
"We also want to promote existing resources and create visibility for them," the ticket's website says.
They also vow to focus on other issues such as sustainability, food inclusivity, safety and security, health and wellness and civic engagement.
"We just want to improve the ASU experience," Palmer said.
Currently, the Vice President of Philanthropy for Sigma Nu, Max Fees is running for president, with Emma Short for VPS and Jack Fuller for VPP. Short is the director of e-communication at Delta Gamma and Fuller is the chair of the finance committee at USGT.
Fees, Short and Fuller want to see an increase in campus engagement with USGT. According to their website, this includes career support, counseling and educational resources.
"We're here to lift the voices of the undergraduate students here on the Tempe campus," said Fees, a junior studying civic and economic leadership and thought. "We want them to expect more."
One of the ticket's priorities is campus safety.
"We want to improve the Safety Escort system and focus heavily on campus security initiatives," the website says.
"Nobody should be paying to get around campus late at night to feel safe," said Fees. "We have a great service, it just needs to be better."
As for campus life and the student experience, the ticket wants to hold more events including concerts, speaker series and athletic events.
"We want you to #ExpectMore out of student government," the website says.
The third ticket has Trey Leveque for president, Jailene Matrecito for VPS and Rachel Caldwell for VPP.
Leveque and Caldwell currently serve in USGT as VPP and director of government affairs, respectively. Matrecito works as executive director for the Residence Hall Association.
The ticket's platform covers topics such as student health and wellness, food inclusivity and services, and aims to provide better support for student workers.
The ticket wants to create an environment for students to feel "empowered in the workplace" and wants to "ensure their concerns are being effectively addressed," according to its website.
Downtown
The only executive ticket for USG Downtown has Nora Thompson for president, Monica Medina for VPS and Renuka Vemuri for VPP.
"Our platform is one of inclusivity, health and wellness, and engagement," Thompson, a junior studying public service and public policy, wrote in the ticket’s press release.
Thompson, Medina and Vemuri have all served in USG as Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions senator, College of Health Solutions senator and senate president, respectively, and have noticed pitfalls in housing opportunities, according to their campaign website.
"We will advocate for affordable housing to the Phoenix City Council in order to ensure that students are able to live in and fully engage with the downtown community," the website says.
In addition to publishing a website "detailing off-campus housing," the ticket wants to advocate for civic engagement by hosting events related to local and federal elections.
The ticket also promises that one of their focuses, if elected, will be to establish a sexual health pharmacy with condoms, lubrication and Plan B.
When it comes to campus nutrition, the ticket wants to expand where meal plans can be used and provide students with a guide on how to eat healthy while on campus.
Polytechnic
The only executive ticket for USG Polytechnic has Troy Anderson for president, Hannah Stirewalt for VPS and Brandon Dixon for VPP.
Anderson currently serves as the VPP for USGP and wants to make diversity and inclusion a priority as part of the executive office by expanding events to every niche of the Poly community and keeping up with an outreach calendar.
The ticket hopes to represent student interests by putting products available in their on-campus office, like tampons, condoms, sunscreen and hand sanitizer, in more accessible locations.
West
There are two tickets this year for USG West.
The first has Natalie Carranza for president, Jamario Gary for VPS and Elizabeth Chilton for VPP.
Carranza is currently the president of the Programming and Activities Board on the West campus. Gary and Chilton are both senators for the W. P. Carey School of Business.
If elected, the ticket wants more involvement from USG in student-organized events.
"I felt like there was so much more USG could've done this year to be a part of the student culture," Chilton, a freshman studying business administration, said.
Carranza, Chilton and Gary also want to expand on USGW sponsored events. The ticket wants to hold four USGW events a year, up from the two the campus currently hosts.
"We want to bring back the fun in USG," said Carranza, a junior studying biology.
Carranza said she wants to bring a new perspective to USGW.
"My biggest thing is leadership," she said. "I want the next president to challenge themselves, challenge their team to how they can expand their leadership at their campus."
The second ticket has W. P. Carey senator Navid Premji for president, Kara Glaser for VPS and Judah Doyen for VPP.
Premji, a freshman studying supply chain management, said his platform wants to give students a place to voice their ideas and concerns to USGW.
"I feel like the students aren't really getting their voices out there," Premji said. "They just don't know where to go. There's no medium for them to speak to student government."
The ticket also wants to improve dining services and the Tempe to West Express shuttle.
"There's one president, but there are many voices," Premji said. "At the end of the day (the students are) the ones who voted me in, and they're the ones who should get their voice out there."
Reach the reporters at pjhanse1@asu.edu and ekgalin1@asu.edu and follow @piperjhansen and @eringalindo29 on Twitter.
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Piper Hansen is the digital editor-in-chief at The State Press, overseeing all digital content. Joining SP in Spring 2020, she has covered student government, housing and COVID-19. She has previously written about state politics for The Arizona Republic and the Arizona Capitol Times and covers social justice for Cronkite News.
