Candidates prepare for IUSA race

With elections coming up in March, students are starting to form together and create tickets or groups to run for the chance to govern the student body.\n“It is our sole responsibility for students to be represented on campus,” said current IU Student Association president and junior W.T Wright. “In (IUSA) students get to voice their view on subjects and get behind different people on different issues.”\nRunning mates Luke Fields and Dan Sloat, both juniors, are running on the Big Red Ticket. Their main goal is to represent the campus as a whole.\n“In the past, there have been tickets based off of both residence halls and Greek houses,” Fields said. “We want to represent the campus as a whole. We are looking for the best people from every part of the campus – \ncombining past divisions and working together towards unity.”\nFor students to create a ticket, they must find other students to run with them. While this may sound difficult, it proved to be no problem for Fields and Sloat.\n“We are getting presidents of Greek houses, upper-level leaders in clubs, volunteer organizations and students that have come recommended to us to join us on our ticket,” Fields said. “We are effective at making change and seeing things through.”\nAfter getting students involved with their ticket, leaders need to create a platform describing their ideas they will stand by. Ideas include everything from creating a student section at the basketball games to tax-free textbooks.\n“Our number one goal is to have more student participation in organizations and have students become more active,” said graduate student and candidate on the INdiana ticket David White. “We want to give back to the students and show what IU has to offer,” \nWith a lack of student turnout for elections in the past, candidates are determined to get students involved in the voting process by creating awareness throughout the campus in creative ways and by creating Web sites.\n“We plan to pass out t-shirts, stickers and create a Facebook group,” White said. “We are trying to channel multiple groups of people to get them to notice us and generate interest.”\nOther candidates plan to reach out to students in a different way.\n“We have talked to a lot of students; we went out to visit different clubs and events,” Sloat said. “Many of the ideas on our platform were brought forth by them. It was nice to hear different students voice their concerns.”\nStudents wanting to get involved with a ticket are more than welcome as well.\n“For students to get involved, they can reach out to different tickets,” Wright said. “Students can find out more information by keeping their eyes open for call out meetings or by going to the IUSA Web site at www.indiana.edu/~iusa/.”\nStudents running for positions to become a part of the IUSA board must be committed to serving the students of IU and be ready to make a change. Voting will take place March 25 and 26. \n“We want to do what is best and what is right for the University,” Fields said. “We want to fix things because we believe this is a special place and want to see change.”