Single ticket discusses platform

This year’s single Student Government presidential ticket is focusing on finishing past projects while focusing on student issues and transparency.

Internal Affairs Chair Cody Spoon and Senator Ian Michalak based some of their platform on completing projects SG has undertaken this year, including the bike share program.

“I definitely want to finish the bike-share program,” Spoon said. “If that’s something that me and the Campus Affairs Chair Maria Antonescu want to work on, that’d be great, or if that’s something that’s going to be implemented next semester, I’d love to take part in that and ensure the work that she did is finished.”

Michalak said they also want to build up relationships and get input from other organizations.

Library hour extensions, a project that was started this school year, is also going to be a focus for their term.

“We still want to fight to have the library hours extended,” Michalak said. “This year, we tried to get 24 hours for the library. We think next year maybe taking baby steps in terms of extended weekend hours will be a good way to achieve our goal.”

A broader goal the two share is maintaining a policy of transparency in SG for next year.

“We still want to do the transparency and continuity,” Spoon said. “I mean, those obviously aren’t things you can just do one time, it’s not an event, it’s just a message that you drive throughout the term.”

However, Spoon and Michalak were not originally the only ticket running in the SG elections.

Senator Benjamin Lynn was planning to run for president with David Manor as his vice president, but the two were unable to get the required signatures of support submitted within the time period. Lynn said he needed roughly 500 signatures, and got about 300 total.

Lynn voiced several concerns over the time constraints put on potential presidential tickets and senators, saying the election board should not have moved the dates around so often.

“I have firsthand knowledge of someone who wanted to run for senators who didn’t realize the deadline, where it was,” Lynn said. “One, they didn’t know about the initial deadline, or two, they didn’t know about the revised deadline, and so that’s kind of fault on Student Government’s part.”

While they are not in the running, Lynn said the two had already developed ideas for a platform and issues they wanted to address, including reducing parking rates, residence halls issues, extending parking hours and hiring faculty and staff members including plumbers and library staffers, for the university. He plans to work on these issues with Spoon and Michalak, and said he is confident in their ability to lead the organization.

Spoon and Michalak said they had no problem with the time limits for submitting their paperwork. According to Michalak, the two obtained the required 500 signatures plus an additional 100 or so. Spoon felt there was an adequate amount of time and communication throughout the process, but plans to improve on it for next year.

“I believe the communication was very clear, as both tickets were involved in all communications,” Spoon said. “But again, maybe next year something like having every deadline set, maybe in February, several months in advance, and no changes from there.”

While Spoon said he is confident in his ability to lead, he was not originally planning on running at all. He changed his mind after being encouraged by conversations with past and current SG presidents and vice presidents.

“I was originally suggested to run by a few peers, a few senators. And I at first wasn’t totally for the idea because of time commitments, but I was encouraged by a lot of people,” Spoon said.

As far as choosing a running mate, Spoon said Michalak was his first pick, and he’d planned on asking him for a while. He convinced him to run when they were attending the Conference on Student Government Association.

“I think we realized when we were at COSGA that we love what we do, and that we’re both pretty similar people, and that we would be good in the position, so that’s why we chose to run,” Michalak said.

Although the two have already chosen many of the issues they plan to work on, both candidates encouraged other students and organizations to come to them with ideas or problems.

“We’re always here for the students, and we don’t just say that, we truly mean that the office is open basically any time of the week,” Spoon said. “We really look forward to hearing students’ opinions and look forward to representing student organizations across campus.”