James Franco and Angie Pati: Campaigning for a better SU
Turns out, a promenade isn’t priority
Juniors James Franco and Angie Pati have a underlying message in their campaign for Student Association President and Vice President; every Syracuse student should be well represented and have a campus that allows them to achieve.
The duo exude energy and passion. Franco has been involved in SA since his freshman year, where he met Angie. The two became best friends and found they also work exceedingly well together in a working environment. Both love Syracuse and want to see it become an ideal campus for every student.
“SA has enormous resources, and the appropriate leaders can work towards what students want. We truly enjoy what we do and contributing to Syracuse,” Pati says.
Franco laid out the major goals of the duo if elected to their respective positions. They center around health and advocacy, campus engagement, safety, and diversity:
Implementing a texting hotline for students in need of help or support.
It would act as a merger between crisis text hotlines and counseling. Students would be trained in how to answer someone who needs help in an unbiased manner, whether that be having a conversation with them or referring the person to a professional. The initiative would come as an aid to an understaffed counseling center and the shutdown of the advocacy center. It would also create a sense of community on campus, along with conversations about mental health that should very much be focused on.
Developing a bus system to take students off campus to Euclid on a reliable, scheduled shuttle.
Euclid Avenue- photo courtesy of nunesmagician.com
Students face the most risk when traveling alone, and a shuttle would provide reliable and safe transportation to off campus locations.
Emphasizing the importance and benefit of diversity and campus involvement to all students
Photo courtesy of Twitter
Franco and Pati both want to encourage the growth and re-enfranchising of such groups like the Multicultural Center and student LGBTQA groups. The duo meet frequently with student interest groups across campus in order to discuss initiative and goals that would mutually benefit SA and students of Syracuse.
In addition, Franco also pushed for extended hours at Bird Library during midterms and co-introduced a bill that unanimously passed in SA calling for Syracuse University to become a sanctuary campus.
“We understand that little changes can make a big difference, and we want to do anything we can to help students,” Franco explains.
Syracuse’s Student Association will hold elections for President and Vice President April 17th-20th. The elections are online, available through students’ MySlice account.
“What we want to stress is that everyone should make sure to vote, even if it’s not for us,” Franco says. Make sure you log into MySlice to vote, SU!