ReviveIU joins race as third IUSA ticket

A third ticket, reviveIU, joined the IU Student Association election Wednesday night with its first public appearance, announcing its platform and ticket executives.

ReviveIU, headed by junior and candidate for student body president Danny Alexander, brands itself as a refreshing alternative to the other two tickets.

“We decided to create this ticket because we wanted to have people from outside of IUSA hit refresh and do something new and something a little more innovative than just the same old rhetoric we’ve been hearing every single year,” Alexander said.

ReviveIU initially announced its intention to run Sunday evening with the launch of its website and Facebook page. The late-in-the-season announcement was a strategic move, sophomore and Vice President of congress candidate Melody Mostow said.

“It gave time for the other platforms and ticket options to sink in,” she said. “We felt that coming out as a surprise later in the game was strategic and would give people a third option that they didn’t know was available.”

The ticket is not full of politicians, but rather public servants, Alexander said.

“We’re not politics as usual,” he said. “That really goes with our tagline — create, innovate, unify — because we feel that student organizations, the student body and IUSA partnered together can really create new ideas and innovate new programs that unite the student body.”

ReviveIU introduced its six platforms: creating microgrants that provide funding to students, introducing the class-preview program OpenClassroom, using the ink-saving EcoFont in campus printers, bringing a farmer’s market to campus, fostering a united student body and championing student rights.

Kelsey Britt, a freshman anthropology major, attended the Wednesday work session. As a member of the ballroom dance team, the microgrant program that funds student initiatives intrigued Britt as her team struggles to find funding, she said.

“I think they’re targeting specific needs at IU that need to be addressed,” Britt said. “They’re very open and seem very passionate about their causes.”

The ticket is interested in strengthening the relationship between IUSA and students.

“If we can make IUSA a partner instead of an organization, to work with other students and student organizations on campus who feel strongly about specific issues, then what better way is there to improve the student body?” Mostow said,

Though the executive candidates have never previously worked in IUSA, the ticket feels prepared to lead the organization, Mostow said.

“We’re from so many different backgrounds that we value any experience serving our University,” she said. “We would not mean to undermine people who have given time and effort into IUSA. We respect people that have done that. I think right now there’s the stereotype that IUSA is a lot of the same people year after year. We’re hoping to bring people who don’t currently know that IUSA is out there to help represent them and bring them into the picture.”