Hoosier ticket drops out, endorses ONE University

The Hoosier ticket announced Tuesday it is dropping out of the race for IU Student Association elections and endorsed the ONE University ticket, which announced its candidacy Monday.

But there’s a catch.

Though the Hoosier ticket gave its endorsement, most of its executive candidates, including presidential candidate Abby Kaericher, resigned from the campaign about one week ago and are endorsing other tickets – not ONE University.

The lone member of Hoosier’s executive ticket to endorse ONE University, former vice presidential candidate Jeff Fraser, is now chief of staff for the ONE University ticket.
The remaining 40 to 50 Congress and staff members also decided to support ONE University, Fraser said.

“We knew we were behind in the race by looking at the diversity and strength of the other tickets,” Fraser said.

Executive members have called ONE University a diverse ticket that represents the student body in its entirety.

“None of the four executives have been executives in the IUSA executive board,” said junior Saad Saghir, vice presidential candidate. “No other ticket can make such a legitimate change in government. Many members are involved with working with executives, but they don’t have a steadfast routine. They have a new, fresh outlook.”

The executives leading the ticket are composed of greek members, a business fraternity member and a graduate student.

“Other tickets just provide lip service, but we embody diversity,” said presidential candidate Ben Blair, a second year law student. “We have a graduate student at the top of our ticket.”

In the past, graduate students have been underrepresented in IUSA, Blair said.

“Graduate students represent 24 percent of the student body,” Blair said. “We are truly talking with the entirety of the student body’s voice, not just three-fourths of it.”

With a graduate student at the head of the ticket, the members of the ONE University ticket say this will strengthen its administration.

“Blair has experienced undergraduate life, and since he is a graduate student now, you know he is going in the right direction,” said junior Samantha Israel, candidate for vice president for Congress. “He knows the kind of work it entails to represent 41,000 students.”

There are about 4,000 international students, a strong population with few representatives in IUSA, Blair said. When Saghir began attending IU, he was considered an international student.

The ticket’s platform issues are technology and facilities, student rights, community service, sustainability and transparency and accountability. ONE University’s Web site is www.vote1u.com.

“From day one we will appoint somebody whose job is solely to update the Web site,” Blair said about the platform’s plans to increase transparency and accountability. “It took 10 months to update the current IUSA administration’s Web site. Students need to know what the executives and members of Congress are doing.”