Undergraduate Student Government West candidates have begun their campaign season for the USG 2021 election taking place on March 30-31.
There is only one ticket running for the executive office, while representatives from four schools make up the USGW Senate.
The executive ticket
Elizabeth Chilton is running for president with Hailey Gilles for vice president of services and Ally Hughes for vice president of policy.
Chilton, a sophomore studying business administration, currently serves as the vice president of policy.
Chilton detailed three building blocks she, Gilles and Hughes would focus on if elected: collaboration, inclusion and redefining the student experience.
"We want to do a lot more collaboration with the Programming Activities Board, Changemaker, things like that," Chilton said.
In order to reach their inclusion goals, Chilton's ticket would work with groups like the Student Accessibility and Inclusive Learning Services to ensure all their events are safe and accessible.
This year, USGW created a space for a multicultural center at West in order to provide representation for all groups on campus.
Chilton noted that she would continue working on this space by equipping it with "the proper staffing, and all of the resources necessary for success."
Their final initiative involves safely resuming events which create "the college experience" students lost during the pandemic.
"We want to bring back old traditions like walking through Paley Gates on your first day, and we want to institute new traditions that bring West into a better light," Chilton said.
Chilton explained West students often transfer to the Tempe campus due to its reputation as "the fun campus."
"We want to make sure that West has aspects that people enjoy and are proud of," she said.
Senate candidates
At the New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, there are four open seats with only three candidates running: Bethany Rocha, Abigail Spencer and Michelle Gradillas.
Gradillas, a sophomore majoring in forensic psychology, is running for re-election. As a senator last year, Gradillas noticed a lack of communication between senators and campus clubs.
"Clubs weren't getting back to us and we struggled with setting a precedent by which clubs had to meet with us," she said.
If re-elected, Gradillas said her main goal is "more communication and transparency" between senators and clubs.
Denise Morales is the only candidate running for W.P. Carey School of Business, while Jessica-Lynn Pagliuca is the only candidate running for the Barrett, the Honors College seat.
There is one seat for the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. The two candidates running for the seat are Theresa Hadson-Taylor and Tyler McClary.
Last year, there was only one Teacher's College senator for all of USG, and the year before the seat had no senators.
"There hasn't been a voice for the Teacher's College in a long time, so that's why I decided to run," McClary said.
McClary, a junior studying secondary education, said he would focus on getting the Teacher's College back to a sense of community if elected.
"A lot of us transferred from the Maricopa Community Colleges and don't know each other ... and that's the same for most colleges," he said.
He wants to revive the sense of camaraderie between students that "has been missing for years."
There are no candidates running for the one senate seat allotted for each of the four colleges: Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, College of Health Solutions, Watts College of Public Service and Community Solutions and Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Voting will be held from March 30-31.
Reach the reporter at omccann1@asu.edu and follow @ocmccann on Twitter.
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