The Undergraduate Student Government Tempe campus candidates began campaigning March 30 for the USG 2020 election, with three executive tickets and students competing for the 10 schools' seats within the Senate.
The executive tickets
The first ticket consists of USGT's current Vice President of Policy Trey Leveque running for president. Jailene Matrecito is running for vice president of services, and Rachel Caldwell is running for vice president of policy.
Among the issues listed on the ticket's website are student health and wellness, food inclusivity and services, support for student workers and civic engagement.
To VPS candidate Matrecito, the ticket's most prominent issue is supporting student workers.
Leveque, Matrecito and Caldwell want the University to consider the impacts of crisis situations like pandemics and natural disasters on student workers who rely on these jobs for income.
"It's clear our administration had not outlined the potential impacts of crisis situations like this," said Matrecito, a junior majoring in English and political science. "It puts our students in really uncomfortable positions."
The ticket also wants to expand the food options at dining halls in a sustainable manner.
According to their website, the ticket plans to expand the food options at the P.O.D. Markets across campus.
"We really want to bring halal, kosher and other options as well," Matrecito said. "There is a very diverse population on campus, and not all of their food dietary restrictions are being met."
Jacqueline Palmer is running for president of the second ticket, with Joshua Freid for vice president of services and Kajol Kapadia for vice president of policy.
Palmer currently serves the office as public relations director for USGT. Kapadia is USGT's director of student affairs, and Freid is the is social chairman of Lambda Chi Alpha.
The Palmer ticket's main platforms are sustainable practices, food inclusivity, safety and security, civic engagement, health and wellness and transparency.
Like the Leveque ticket, Palmer, Freid and Kapadia want kosher and halal options at the Tempe dining halls. Their website also lists vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, gluten-free and options that cater to students with other food allergies.
Palmer, a junior triple majoring in digital marketing, political science and business law, said her team is approaching a definition of transparency that is different by educating students on USG and its initiatives.
"We want to make sure that through this campaign students understand we're the connecting link between students and administration," Palmer said. "If more people know, the more people it can help."
One of the ticket's main focuses on health and wellness is promoting a medical amnesty policy. Palmer said she wants ASU to join NAU and UA in implementing their own medical amnesty policy.
Medical amnesty policies aim to protect students from academic repercussions when calling for emergencies involving the illegal use of alcohol and/or drugs.
READ MORE: Medical amnesty proposal slowly makes its way through student government
"We're hoping under the Arizona Board of Regents, we can have this consistent policy to help keep our students safe," Palmer said.
Competing against Palmer and Leveque is the Fees ticket with Max Fees for president, Emma Short for vice president of services and Jack Fuller for vice president of policy.
Fees' campaign focuses on expecting more from student government and University leadership.
Their platform consists of increasing campus engagement, improving campus safety and maximizing the student experience.
"We're passionate about student programming," said Fees, a junior studying civic and economic thought and leadership.
Fees served as the director of Devilpalooza his sophomore year in 2019. Fees said under his direction, his team set a record for the number of students in attendance.
If elected, Fees wants to use his experience as director to bring bigger events to the student body.
"We believe (for one of the largest universities in the country) we should have some of the biggest and the best events," said Fees.
The ticket wants to do this by "reigniting" Infernofest and "scaling up" Devilpalooza, according to the campaign's website.
Fees said another big issue for the ticket is improving campus safety. According to Fees, students have reported they would rather pay for an Uber or Lyft than wait for the Safety Escort system to get them around campus.
If elected, the ticket would work toward implementing an Uber-like service to the LiveSafe and ASU Mobile apps.
"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."
Senators
There are three seats for Barrett, the Honors College.
Diane Solorio, Kate Hostal, Marco Huerta, Megan Hall and Cameron Decker are all competing for the election.
Running for the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering is Fabian Sanchez-Suarez, Jason Tinti, Nathaniel Anbar, Richard Robert and Zachary Snider. The engineering school has five seats within the Senate.
The Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College candidates are Kamden Maag and Yamilet Ibanez. The Teachers College only has one seat in the Senate.
Kelvin Luk is the only candidate for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.
Running for the School of Sustainability is Bridget Abraham and Kylie Vacala. There is only one Senate seat for the school in USGT.
The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has four seats in the Senate.
Running for election are Alexia Isais, Ann Thomas, Arjun Rondla, Bridget Saidu, Christian Leon, Clay Robinson, Daiva Scovil, Daniel Lopez, Ian Samuel, Sebastian Miscenich, Riley Macias and Pranati Guduru.
There are four seats for the W. P. Carey School of Business on the Tempe campus.
Those running are Alyssa Hollingsworth, Derek Baranski, Devon Smith, Espoir Le'Dieu, Joe Pitts, Luz Granados Jarquin, Michael Kravitz, Natalie Ibarra, Nicholas Turcott, Tanner Hauck and Rudy Garcia.
There are no candidates running for the single seats available for the College of Health Solutions and the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, or the two seats for the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts.
Voting will be held virtually on the ASU elections website from April 14-15.
Reach the reporter at ekgalin1@asu.edu and follow @eringalindo29 on Twitter.
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