On Feb. 7, Ball State University's Student Government Association (SGA) introduced the candidates and their tickets at the L.A. Pittenger Student Center.
The two tickets are “Elevate” with Presidential Nominee Noah Poole and Vice Presidential Nominee Brenna Large — current president pro tempore — and “Adams and Angel” with Samuel Adams and Angel Esquivel-Vazquez.
Elevate has five platform points: student experience, safety, health and advocacy, transportation and campus life.
Adams and Angel only have one campaign promise: transparency. Their goal is not to be politicians but public servants for the student body by being “honest advocates” for them, according to their Instagram page.
“Really, what that means is making sure that we're all on the same page. Because when we're trying to represent the student body, it's important to know what they want,” Esquivel-Vazquez said.
One of Elevate's additional points is improving campus and community safety by proposing a comprehensive reach out app.
“This reach out app allows students to access mental health resources, safety resources, and drug or alcohol use resources at the tip of their fingertips on their phone even when UPD, university officials and residence hall members can’t be there,” Poole said.
Adams and Esquivel-Vazquez discussed improving Ethernet capability within dorms, opening the Jo Ann Gora Student Recreation and Wellness Center for 24 hours and finding out what the “most absolutely pressing issues” are that the student body has, according to Esquivel-Vazquez.
“We have every intention of exploring the issues that are important to the student body, and we're taking these things straight from the people,” Adams said. “We didn't come up with any of our policy points ourselves. Everything we've made has been focused entirely on suggestions and questions brought to us by the student body.”
As part of their agenda, Elevate hopes to increase the “Red Zone,” which refers to the first six weeks in the residence halls where sexual assault is more likely to occur.
“We will look at getting more transparency in safety. The university publishes safety statistics and data, such as the numbers of assaults on campus or firearms or break-ins,” Large said. “A lot of times, this information is not easily digestible for students, nor presented in a way that it's easy for students to find.”
Adams and Angel plan to achieve increased student interest in campus events by becoming more interactive with the student body through social media and in-person conversations.
Elevate wants to increase the follower count and engagement on SGA’s Instagram account. One potential way they’d like to do this is by partnering with the Office of Student Life.
The presidential debate is on Feb. 13 at 5:30 p.m. in room 310 of the Student Center. The vice presidential debate is on Feb. 15 at 5:30 p.m. in rooms 301/302 of the Student Center. According to the SGA elections website, voting polls open on Feb. 19 at 8 a.m. and close online on Feb. 20 at 5 p.m.
Contact Meghan Braddy with comments via email at meghan.braddy@bsu.edu or on X @meghan_braddy.
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