Meet the IUSA candidates: reviveIU

Danny Alexander, presidential candidate

He beat Justin Kingsolver. Well, two years ago, anyway.

Danny Alexander, a junior majoring in political science and economics, beat out challenger Justin Kingsolver during their freshman year when the two vied for floor governor in Teter.

Now, the two face each other again in the race for IU Student Association student body president.

After working in student government in high school, Alexander became involved in student government through Residence Hall Association, serving as floor governor in Teter during his freshman year, followed by Teter Quad president during his sophomore year.

Alexander now heads the reviveIU ticket, which is made up of a diverse cross section of campus, he said.

“I love my ticket so much because we represent different people. We’re not IUSA execs, we’re not IUSA people from last year. We’re people from different parts of the student body coming together to work: Global Medical Brigades, College Democrats, RHA, Hillel, Greek housing, ROTC. We’re all these different people coming together,” he said.

Earlier this year, he and candidate for Vice President for administration Chris Babcock mutually decided to form the ticket after finding other tickets’ platforms lacking, Alexander said.

Alexander said he considers the fact that none of the reviveIU executives have had executive positions in IUSA a non-issue.

“No one on my ticket is going to be left behind on anything. We’re going to be capable when it’s time to rise up to it. Learning curves are always going to be steep, no matter what you do. But if you have the right mindset, if people really believe in what you stand for, you need to use that and be inspired by that to do the extra hours and really work at it,” he said.

In an attempt to create an open dialogue between students and IUSA executives, reviveIU’s platforms, though formally announced, are not set in stone.

“I shouldn’t automatically say that these are the platforms that we are going to follow just because they’re eye catching. I want to make sure that we’re helping out on actual problems that the student body is having. I want to make IUSA a lot more in tune with what the student body really needs,” he said.

To further facilitate a stronger connection between IUSA and students, Alexander proposes a council similar to the United Nations, where representatives from student organizations could gather to collaborate on problems and student issues.

Such an organization would be strengthened by reviveIU’s microgrant platform, which would grant student groups and organizations funding, Alexander said.

“It would make the campus so much closer. It would help organizations, people with ideas get the money that they need for their ideas to expand them and really make something of them. Something like this would be substantial,” he said.

He said he believes IUSA can be the peak, not just the beginning, of one’s leadership on campus.

“We’ve had experiences in different organizations, and IUSA should be the culmination of that. We have different ideas that will do something new for IUSA,” he said.

Melody Mostow, vice-presidential candidate for Congress

Melody Mostow, reviveIU candidate for vice president for congress, said she isn’t worried about her lack of prior involvement in the IU Student Association. In fact, she’s proud of it.

“I think it says a lot that we’re students that aren’t bred to be leaders of the student government, that we just genuinely care about running IUSA,” Mostow said. “The nature of IUSA wasn’t created to be some sort of cult. It was created for students to have the opportunity to serve the student body. Inherently in that, they had to anticipate students who hadn’t served in IUSA would want to help and be involved.”

The sophomore political science major transferred to IU this year from Columbia University. A year before that, Mostow spent a gap year in Israel, with half the year in Jerusalem in an intensive Hebrew program and the other living in a small development town in the desert teaching English in an army school.

Her passion for Israel led her to the Indiana Israel Public Affairs Committee at IU, as well as the College Democrats.

If elected, she wants to reach out to Hillel and will proudly represent the Jewish community in the student government setting, she said.

“I think that our intentions are so important. Anyone who knows us knows how genuine we are about wanting to make these changes and that we’re doing it for the good of the student body,” Mostow said.

De-emphasizing the idea that prior IUSA experience is necessary for a ticket, Mostow said the ticket has contacts and constituents unique to ticket members’ experiences. 

“I wasn’t involved with IIPAC before. I wasn’t involved with College Democrats before. I think that with any organization you become involved, you get the lay of the land and you pick it up because that’s what it’s made for. They don’t expect students to be here for more than four years, and they don’t expect students to hold office for that many years either,” she said.

Mostow said she plans to encourage Congress members to think critically when voting on legislation.

“I think that the voting record for this year, having so many bills passed unanimously, is probably less a reflection on everyone agreeing and more of a reflection on a lack of critical thought. I want to make sure congressmen are voting based on their constituents and really rising to the role to make Congress here more than just a rubber stamp on executive legislation,” she said.

Chris Babcock,Vice-presidential candidate for administration

Voice raspy from ROTC morning training, Chris Babcock sat down to discuss reviveIU and his candidacy for vice president for administration.

The sophomore environmental management major said he knew he wanted to get involved with leadership opportunities at IU, which he calls the “land of opportunity.”
He found an outlet through College Democrats, for which he currently serves as vice
president.

Now, after joining Danny Alexander’s reviveIU ticket, Babcock said he looks to make IUSA more accessible for the average student.

“I think there has been the problem of engaging students who have been apathetic with the system. We want students to see that IUSA can work for them if there are people working to create an open dialogue, not having a top-down approach,”
he said.

Babcock defended reviveIU’s united student body and student rights platforms, which some view as vague.

“Campus unity is a recurring issue because it needs to be addressed. If any of our platforms are considered vague, it is not because we lack the motivation or ideas to accomplish. It shows the open dialogue we want to have with students,”
he said.   

Specifically regarding the student rights platform, Babcock said he wants IUSA to be advocates for the student body.

“When incidents arise on campus, IUSA needs to be the voice of the students to protect students. Accidents shouldn’t be the catalyst for protecting student rights. We need to take a proactive approach,” Babcock said.

If elected, he said he would like to see implementation of a student vote-based system to determine executive priorities, allowing students to help IUSA determine its focus.

He said he also wants to increase transparency by fixing dead links on the IUSA website and accounting for IUSA expenditures in greater detail.

“I think a lot of students are frustrated because they’re shut out of the system. The more we open that up to them, the better our results, the better our outcomes,” he said.

With this year’s campaign season shorter than in years past, Babcock and reviveIU have had to be much more efficient in campaigning and planning, Babcock said.

“Whether it’s intentional or not, it makes it difficult to work with. To be honest, two months is not enough time to launch a full campaign. I think we have done a tremendous job mobilizing,” he said.