Everything you need to know to prepare for SGA elections

Trump, Clinton and Sanders are just a few names that come up in political talk nowadays. The national election season has been quite an interesting toss up,  and now Florida State’s own campaign season has begun. There are two political parties in the running for office this season — here’s a breakdown of both the Vitality Party and the Advance Party.

Be sure to make your voice heard and cast your vote on the 24th of February!

The Vitality Party

The Vitality Party is the current majority within SGA. In early 2015 they beat the four-year incumbent party ‘Ignite’ with a 51% vote tally. Being a first-year party, Jean Tabares and VP Iyanna Pierre-Louis were definitely the underdogs going into the campaign.

“There are no words to describe this feeling right now, but I know that this wasn’t a victory just for [the party], this was a victory for the student body and a positive change on this campus,” Tabares said on the 2015 election day.

When asked about his personal agenda for the party if elected, John Russo, the President nominee for the Vitality Party, said he was trying to invoke a positive change for the campus. His personal experience has pushed him to work with the counseling center on campus to help students dealing with depression. His goal is to have orientation incorporate a section where they talk to incoming students and try to inform them about identifying the signs of depression in themselves or others.

“[The party] has accomplished more in 10 months than Ignite did in 4 years,” Russo, the Presidential candidate said. “Members of this party are selfless and are committed to this cause.”

The Vitality Party had quite an emotional win and an aggressive campaigning strategy (that essentially won them the previous election), so it will be interesting to see what tactics they use this time around. The Vitality Party as a whole are trying to push a bit of changes here on campus.

Some of the Vitality Party’s platform points include:

• Free tampons available for students
• Establishing a sense of “home”
• Building cohesiveness among the minority community on campus

The Advance Party

At a meeting in early February, I was able to hear why members of this party were “#Advancing” Florida State, and how they intended to do so.

“Advance offers students a place to come and ‘plug-in’ to campus,” said Tori Patton, Director of PR for Advance. “It is more than just a political party on campus, it is truly a student organization focused on engaging Seminoles from all areas of campus, and making the best of their experience…This university is something we all hold near and dear to our hearts, and I truly believe that Advance is the new way forward for FSU.”

Advance said they will be striving to develop and elect skilled student leaders that will foster a comprehensive and forward-thinking Student Government Association at The Florida State University. Through the creation of this type of Student Government Association, the Advance Party will connect diverse populations within the FSU community and create a student body at FSU that will progress ahead of the status quo. The Advance Party will advance student life, keep the student body educated on issues facing them or the university, and trail-blaze a new way forward for the Florida State University as a prominent institution of higher education.

“The conversations we’ve had with students and administration have created this mosaic of student issues that we’re ready to fight for on Day 1,” said Student Body President Candidate, Nathan Molina. #AdvanceFSU

Some of the Advance Party’s platform points include:

• Negotiate a student discount with Uber
• Accept EBT on-campus
• Institute a Hammock Rental Program for students
• Allow students to substitute parking fees with community service hours
• Introduce Redbox to campus