Undergraduate Student Government elections take place this week with online voting beginning Tuesday, March 28.
The USG Polytechnic campus executive ticket is running unopposed, meaning that the USGP President, Vice President of Service and Vice President of Policy are set for the 2023-2024 academic year.
The Associated Students of ASU elections department will release the results of the election, including the winners of various college-based senate seats, on Thursday, March 30.
The Polytechnic campus is home to many of the interdisciplinary, engineering and technology academic programs offered by the University. It is located directly next to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa.
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Shaurya Manglik, a freshman studying robotics engineering, will be the new USGP President. Manglik is currently the USGP Director of Marketing, and he says that his experience as a student living on the Polytechnic campus and as a USGP member has given him insight into the campus identity.
"The Polytechnic campus in itself has a very unique identity compared to the other three campuses because the environment here and the student body here has a very different kind of mindset and a different focus altogether," Manglik said.
The Polytechnic campus is one of the smaller campuses in the University system with a Fall 2022 enrollment of 5,825 students, according to University data. Manglik, Gonzalez and Lele each said the Poly campus exudes its own identity – one that is very distinct from the main Tempe campus or the Downtown Phoenix or West campuses. They see this as something special and worth promoting and protecting.
The next USGP Vice President of Policy Michelle Gonzalez, who is a freshman studying preveterinary medicine, said this contributes to a stronger community feel on the campus of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) majors.
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"We're a very STEM focused campus," Gonzalez said. "We hope to support that in every way possible, as well as providing a very social environment for people to de-stress, especially because a STEM campus can be very stressful."
Part of this USGP executive ticket's strategy to reduce stress for students on the Polytechnic campus who are experiencing a heavy workload is to foster an environment for more student clubs and activities.
Manglik said that the campus had many student organizations and clubs that did not make it through the COVID-19 pandemic due to in-person restrictions or now graduated students who did not return to lead their clubs.
"We want to make sure that those clubs get back again, get alive again and the innovation spirit keeps on going," Manglik said. "We want to make sure that the Polytechnic campus represents innovation..."
The next USGP Vice President of Service, Aadish Lele, a freshman studying engineering, said creating more student involvement, specifically with upperclassmen, in clubs and activities is integral to his team's platforms, which he says includes diversity, dedication and development.
"We would like to develop and engage more incoming students and also upper division students into getting more involved in student clubs," Lele said.
Gonzalez said she wants to create a strong support system on the campus and increase communication between the student government and the student body.
"I'd love to provide a safe environment for students to come and talk, to get to know us and just get to know what USGP is all about," Gonzales said. "I just love it so much because the support system within our team is amazing."
Lele said that he originally joined USGP to see changes on campus actualized.
"The reason I'm running for the executive ticket is to have more power and more freedom to make changes on campus and see what we can do to achieve benefits for students," Lele said.
Edited by Shane Brennan, Reagan Priest and Anusha Natarajan.
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