On Tuesday night, LSA juniors Nicholas Fadanelli and Ryan Gillcrist announced they will be running for LSA Student Government president and vice president, respectively. Their campaign aims to put students first in all their future initiatives.
Fadanelli, who is currently a counsel for the LSA-SG, has been involved with the assembly since his freshman year. One concern he has with the organization was its lack of visibility on campus.
Fadanelli hopes to amend this to properly gauge what LSA students want.
“We can’t figure out what they want if they don’t even know that we exist,” he said. “Seeking out the voices of LSA students comes first. We serve the student body and we are here to listen to them, to what they want and to push for those things, not to impose our own beliefs on the student body.”
Gillcrist echoed his running mate, adding he hopes to address voice often unheard in the college.
“The main reason why I want to run is because I firmly believe in the mission of LSA student government, which is to actively seek the voices of the LSA community and advocate for students,” he said. “I also want to run because, as a minority, I know there are a lot of people, including myself, who have felt underrepresented by student government, and I hope that we can change that.”
Gillcrist said supporting diversity and tackling campus climate will be two of the focuses of their campaign. Since these changes can be difficult, Gillcrist hopes to make LSA-SG an ally to students.
LSA sophomore Nick Meier, the campaign manager, said he was excited to present their platform after weeks of planning
“We are glad that we were able to design not only a great platform, but a message I think will really connect with students (by) putting students first,” he said.
The platform consists of the three main parts: academics, student life and diversity.
For academics, they hope to focus on creating a fixed-rate tuition. With student life, they are hoping to improve the conditions of the Mason Hall bathrooms and to introduce Wi-Fi to the Diag.
The diversity section will aim to keep the administration accountable to University President Mark Schlissel’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion plan in order to see an improvement of campus climate for underrepresented students.
“At the end of the day, if we don’t try to go reach out and try things that are a bit controversial and we don’t try to do the things that students want us to do, what’s the point?” Fadanelli said.