The essential guide to the 2016 Temple Student Government election

This year, four tickets are running in hopes to be the next President, Vice President of External Affairs and Vice President of Services for Temple Student Government. Each comes from different backgrounds with different beliefs on how to improve Temple University.

Check out the four tickets and see how each plan to make Temple great again.

Believe in TU

• Candidate for President – John Jasionowicz
• Candidate for VP of External Affairs – Deja Lighty
• Candidate for VP of Services – Alex Waldron

Newcomers to TSG, the main points on the Believe in TU platform include unifying the student body, improving the university, and achieving our best. Each of these three pillars are broken down to include things such as mental health awareness on campus, a zero tolerance policy for sexual assault and harassment, support for student organizations, stronger alumni connections, changing the Greek recruitment schedule and more.

The team believes one of the most unique aspects of their platform is the expansion of the meal plan, citing San Diego State University as a school who has put restaurants like Subway and Chipotle on their meal plan though also being run by a Sodexo-like system. Jasionowicz said, “Since the Sodexo contract will be up for negotiation soon, we believe this is one of the best times to adjust our dining options. We believe that we can get restaurants like Subway and Chipotle on our meal plan system if negotiations go smoothly. Acquiring a vendor who will push for the transition will be crucial, but the existing Diamond Dollars system at some restaurants should make the transfer process easy.”

Empower TU

• Candidate for President – Aron Cowen
• Candidate for VP of External Affairs – Jai Singletary
• Canddiate for VP of Services – Kelly Dawson

Empower TU has a rather large campaign staff, 11 members, not including the three candidates. When asked why they chose to have such a big team, Kelly said, “They wanted to be involved. We talked about our platform and our vision for Temple and they resonated with that.” Aron also said it helps their campaign, as these people are all so heavily involved on campus and bring different ideas to the table. This ticket also has prior TSG experience.

Two points of their platform that they’re very passionate about are the creation of a parliament and the expansion of Disability Resources and Services. Jai worked with the Civil Rights Center for a summer and learned how big of a term disability  can be.

“Opportunities are limitless to us and opportunities to be limitless to them.”

Aron believes that the parliament is crucial to the success of TSG because it’s a way to make sure every student’s needs can be represented to the Board of Trustees.

“Right now TSG is an executive body. There is only one president trying to represent 40,000 students. You can’t do that with one person. We have a diverse student body and a diverse array of thought.”

Other issues on their platform include gender neutral housing, monthly community forums, work to make textbooks more affordable and much more.

Owl OpporTUnity

• Candidate for President – Michael Horwath
• Candidate for VP of External Affairs – Lady Carmela Robinson
• Candidate for VP of Services – Titus Knox

The creation of a student senate, expansion of career opportunities for graduates, standardization of general education courses and more are all ways to respectively connect communities, stress financial issues and address student life, all three pillars of their platform. Their ticket contains another member of TSG, so this race is nothing new.

Titus Knox, candidate for VP of Services, believes the diversity of experience on their ticket is what makes them so unique.

“We see things from different angles. Michael has the TSG experience and Lady Carmela has a perspective from Greek life, while I see things from an organizational point of view. I think that gives us the ability to represent a variety of students on campus because we understand each perspective.”

Titus also stressed their sustainability and alumni programs as being very laid out and crucial to their campaign.

Take TU

• Candidate for President – Tina Ngo
• Candidate for VP of External Affairs – Jared Dobkin
• Candidate for VP of Services – Isabella Jayme 

Another group of newcomers to TSG, self proclaimed radical Take TU has garnered a lot of attention for being the only inter-sectional feminist campaign and for very strongly opposing the on- campus stadium. Endorsed by activists groups everywhere, presidential candidate Tina Ngo believes the activism on campus helped her and her team to shape their platform.

A lot of the initiatives we have on our platform are initiatives of student activists on campus. Our platform was crafted in partnership with campus and community activists to best address the actual needs of students and community members.”

Their platform hopes to engage the student body, empower the community and enhance the future all by opening communication with the community of the occurrences on campus,  focus on student safety by expanding the limits of the escort services, promote sustainability, create high school transition programs, install a sexual assault crisis center and more.

Tina also cites the focus on social issues and social justice for students and community members as the more compelling parts of their platform. “Our platform doesn’t just entail initiatives strictly for TSG or how we plan to reform TSG, it also lists initiatives that will be beneficial to both the student body and the North Philadelphia community members,” said Ngo.

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Now that you know a little bit about each candidate, it’s time to exercise your right as a student to vote. To vote, all you need to do is enter your Access Net username and password here and select your favorite candidate. Voting closes Wednesday March 30 at midnight.